Marine Drive

Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre

Arthur Road jail

journalist J Dey

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NCPA

Girgaum Chowpatty

A decade ago, Rahul ‘Bhikhu’ Jadhav, a hitman with several cases against him, ran from cops. Then, he took to running and rebuilt his life.Walking along the promenade at, Rahul Jadhav tells me about the turning point in his life. The year was 2015, and the former hitman, who once worked for a prominent underworld don, was at the, in Pune, struggling to overcome his addiction to alcohol and drugs, and his resentment against “a society that refused to accept” him back.“My counselor Habiba Jetha wanted me to channelise my anger elsewhere. She asked me to set a goal in life. ‘I can’t even find a job, what possible goal can I set?’ I barked at her.”Jetha asked him what he was really good at. Jadhav says he was silent for a couple of seconds. “Then I told her that all I knew was how to run. I ran from the police, I ran after shooting people, and I told her that if I was not discharged from the centre, I would run all the way to Mumbai.”Jetha told him to get started. With the help of Dr Anil Awachat, the founder of Muktangan, she arranged for him to participate in an upcoming 10-km marathon in Pune, and told him that if he stayed focused, he would one day run from Mumbai to Muktangan, instead of the other way round. Jadhav was confused; he didn’t think running would help him at all.“But I prepared for the marathon, and ran anyway. I did it in 55 minutes, and felt, for the first time in my life, that I had achieved something. That’s how it all began.”Last Sunday, in the build-up to his participation in the Mumbai Marathon, he ran from CST to Dombivali (about 63 km) in 5 hours and 50 minutes. A week after the Mumbai Marathon, he will be taking part in the Mumbai-Pune run. “It’s a three-day run but I might complete it in two days,” says the sinewy 42-year-old, and winks.The Mumbai-Pune run is a commitment that Jadhav wants to keep. He is glad that Jetha’s prophecy of him running from Mumbai to Muktangan has come true. But the road that led to the new starting line of his life, so to speak, has been a long and hard one.Jadhav grew up in Dombivali, and was an “an average student”. After passing his tenth standard exams — “I got about 65 percent” — Jadhav decided he wanted to get rich fast. So he stopped going to college, and looked for ways to do that. “I wanted people to respect me, even if it was out of fear.” About half a decade later, Jadhav, who modelled himself on Manoj Bajpayee’s character in the cult movie Satya, was known as ‘Bhikhu’ to his accomplices. He was also a history-sheeter and a hitman for hire. By 2007, when he was arrested by the late Vijay Salaskar, he had 11 cases against him. He had been booked thrice under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act; had four cases of attempt to murder registered against him; and was wanted for being involved in several shootouts across the city (He was absolved of all charges in 2013).Jadhav spent four years at, and when he got out on bail in 2010, he said he wanted to reform himself. “I looked for a job, and after months of trying, I was employed as a quality inspector at a small company in Thane. I was doing well, and had successfully stayed away from my many vices.”In 2011, though, his life began to unravel again. “Around June that year, thewas murdered, and a few Bollywood actors got threatening calls. Back then, whenever there was a firing, or when threats were issued to anyone, I was among the usual suspects who were rounded up.”The police landed up at his workplace and made enquiries with the staff and his bosses. A week later, he lost his job. Jadhav says he tried to rebuild his life after the setback, but no one was willing to employ him. So he lapsed into alcoholism and drugs. “I became a certified nuisance to my parents, our neighbours and society at large. I would pick fights all the time; I became a monster,” says Jadhav. It was then that his family got him admitted to Muktangan. “Nothing changed. I’d spend 30 days there, return home and hit the bottle,” Jadhav recalls. That decisive moment with Habiba Jetha took place during his fourth stint at the rehabilitation centre.In mid-2016, after he he had run the half-marathon (21 km) at the Khel Marathon, with the help of veteran runner Ashish Puntambekar, the staff at Muktangan thought that Jadhav was ready to return to the outside world.“I was reluctant to leave the centre; I was afraid. I was happy there, and happy with my running. I didn’t want to do anything else. I didn’t want to face people back home who loathed me. But then I knew I couldn’t continue at the centre forever. I had to regain my respect not only for myself, but also for my family.”Jetha told Mirror that it took her time to gain Jadhav’s trust. “He would always make it a point to attend counselling sessions. He was willing to change himself and that is very important.” When Jadhav left Muktangan, he says Jetha told him to “fight fear and look it in the eye”.As Jadhav re-acclimatised to life outside the rehabilitation centre, he realised that gaining the trust of people was a difficult process. As was getting a job. He was also told by Jetha to make friends, since he had none.“People in and around my neighbourhood were cordial, but they didn’t trust me. In their heads, I was still Rahul, “that brash, long-haired, bearded guy who always had two pistols tucked into his trousers at any given time”. They didn’t even share their mobile number with me.” The only friends he managed to make, says Jadhav, were on. “Basically, all the staff and doctors from Muktangan and a few runners from Pune,” he smiles.Three months after leaving the centre, Jadhav bumped into an old friend, “a former fellow addict”, during his visits to the Institute for Psychological Health, in Thane. “We were both there as part of following up on our treatment at Muktangan.” Jadhav says that his friend was among those who knew he was a hard worker, and had seen him double up as a cleaner, nurse and ad-hoc receptionist at Muktangan. “He had seen me work 16 hours at a stretch at the rehab, from cleaning toilets, throwing out trash, cleaning the vomit of new addicts to tying them up during withdrawals... You could say I worked there as a nurse, housekeeper and also handled a bit of accounts, like petty cash.”Jadhav’s friend worked as a salesman for a small chocolate company in Mumbai and set up a meeting for him with the head of the firm.“I laid my entire life history before them. I also warned them that cops could still come looking for me. But the head of the company — my current boss — simply shrugged his shoulders and said I could join them. I couldn’t believe it. But, you know, when life takes a positive turn, you do bump into good people.” Jadhav also credits anti-extortion cell officer Vinayak Vast with encouraging him during “difficult times”. Vast told a newspaper last year that Jadhav was among those who he remembered, because “he had shown a desire to reform.”Last year, Jadhav “happily” sold chocolates. Every day, after work, he would travel to Mumbra from Byculla, change into running gear and run all the way to Dombivali . He recently moved to Kalbadevi with his parents, and now goes running fromto Walkeshwar and back, before running home.Running has helped him rebuild his life, says Jadhav, and it has also helped him conquer his demons. When he scythes through the crowds in Bhendi Bazaar, Kamathipura, Nul Bazar, and Crawford Market, he is often at the receiving end of abuses from motorcyclists and vendors who feel that he is blocking their way.“It’s a good way to keep your anger in check. When I board crowded trains, people have raised their hand on me, but I have fought back with a smile. I don’t get intimidated anymore,” says Jadhav. “I just take the pleasure of being among them, you know, because I know what isolation means. I remember while I was at Arthur Road, I would often see this one particular flat in a tower from my barrack. The lights would go off at 11pm and the family would wake up at 6am. I wanted that life. Now I am living it.”Jadhav says he has not dwelled on his past in the last two-odd years. But he does tell me about a moment that took him back during his first Mumbai Marathon last year.“In 2007, before I was arrested by Salaskar, I had been involved in a firing. I was on the run and landed up atin the dead of the night. I drifted off to sleep on the footpath. When I woke up in the morning, I saw thousands of people running and there were several cops all around. I didn’t know the marathon was on. I mingled with the crowd and ran until Babulnath and then off to Grant Road from where I took a train and disappeared. When I passed the same spot in Girgaum Chowpatty last year, my past flashed before my eyes. But I also felt happy that I had changed, that I was just another regular guy.”