‘Daddy’ of Mumbai gets life for murder

MUMBAI — An Indian gangster-politician who rose from the working classes to be called “daddy” by his adoring followers was Friday sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a local rival in 2008. A court earlier this week found Arun Gawli and 10 others guilty of killing right-wing Hindu politician Kamlakar Jamsandekar four years ago in India’s financial capital, the Press Trust of India reported. “Instead of death I am giving you life imprisonment,” judge Prithviraj Chavan said while handing down the sentence to Gawli, a former legislator from the Shiv Sena party in Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital. Police say Gawli and his associates were paid three million rupees ($54,500) to eliminate Jamsandekar, who also belonged to the Shiv Sena, a rightwing Hindu party with enormous political clout in the western Indian state. — AFP