Hood in hiding: Sleepless nights of a reformed rowdy – Times of India

Kumar sells juice for a living and moves around in disguise, even when going out with his wife. He has sold his house in north Chennai and his daughters have been spirited away to a safe location.
But he remains in dread. In the 1990s, the 50-year-old former history-sheeter was known as ‘Aruppu’ (which in Tamil refers to a slash of a knife) Kumar. His face is almost completely marked with scars, one even running the entire length to his scalp. His puny figure doesn’t inspire much confidence, but he gave as good as he got and was a real threat to several gangsters.
Now, he is running scared. “It has been decades since I have slept peacefully. I have shifted residence at least 15 times fearing attacks from a rival gang,” he says.
For someone who was rolling in blood money, Kumar now earns a meagre ₹500 a day, a price he is ready to pay for the safety of his family.
Reminiscing his ‘heyday,’ Kumar says he used to rub shoulders with notorious criminals such as Chera, ‘Asai’ Thambi, Kabilan and Mano at a time when ganginfested areas in north Chennai were impenetrable and turf wars were at their peak. “When I walked on the street, people would greet me out of fear. Some would run away,” says Kumar.
Gangs, as a rule, never got engaged in issues involving, threatening and extorting from smugglers who earned in crores, he says. “Rookies like me, on joining gangs, were taken to witness incidents of extortion as a show of strength.
Only after I was first attacked by gangster ‘Vellai’ Uma, did I realise how difficult it is to survive,” Kumar said.
‘Vellai’ Uma alias Uma Sankar, a notorious gangster, was hacked to death at Neelankarai in 2011. But, Kumar’s epiphany came much earlier. On July 30, 1996, in what is considered the first encounter in the city, police gunned down ‘Aasai’ Thambi outside Loyola College.
Soon after this, Kumar and many others, in fear, began shifting to the city’s outskirts or other nondescript places. Over the years, several of his friends have perished, many of them before the age of 50, but Kumar is an exception. He says he has so far ensured his daughters remain unaware of his murky past and continues to be in touch with police officers who helped him lead a new life.