Gangster Queens: Inside the rise of women in organised crime

A young woman from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan has a tattoo of an AK-47 on her hand, like a declaration of intent. Another woman was running an innocuous beauty salon in Delhi, but her nickname is a dead giveaway: Madam Zeher (Madam Poison). A third woman is armed not just with a bachelor’s degree in computer applications but also weapons: she is hailed as Revolver Rani.

These are not characters from the pages of a thriller, but real women who have come to occupy central roles in criminal networks across the National Capital Region (NCR) and beyond.

The woman with the Kalashnikov tattoo has an everyday name— Pooja Sharma, alias Maya. And she had an everyday life as a wife until she left her family, reportedly got in touch with a gang leader on Instagram and became a gangster herself. In 2024, the then 28-year-old was allegedly given an assignment. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang asked her to disguise herself as a lawyer in a Chandigarh courtroom and shoot dead a rival gangster. But before she could carry out the hit she was arrested; the police reportedly recovered a newly bought lawyer’s gown from her.

Before she was labelled Madam Zeher by the police, Khusnuma Ansari was a makeover artist in Mahipalpur, Delhi. Her Instagram account has brides in heavy lehnga and jewellery, but the police who arrested her in February this year claim her beauty parlour was not just about makeup. They allege it was a front for a drugs network. She is also allegedly linked to the Bishnoi syndicate.

WOMEN IN CRIME LANDS
In India’s criminal landscape, women were on the margins—except for Phoolan Devi in the ravines of Chambal and Haseena Parkar, the younger sister of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who reportedly ran a dreaded extortion network in Mumbai. Today’s gangster women are young, educated and visible on social media. And are key actors in the criminal networks in NCR and beyond.

This change happened alongside a shift in the theatre of action. For a long time, Mumbai was the epicentre of organised crime syndicates. Its underworld was glamorised and immortalised in Bollywood films that depicted extortion rackets and gang rivalries set against the city’s seafront and skyline. Over the past decade, the locale has moved northwards—to Delhi and its adjoining belt, stretching across Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab.

If Dawood was once the face of organised crime, it is now Lawrence Bishnoi. His network—sprawling and decentralised—is run through a web of operatives in India and abroad, even as Bishnoi, who has been linked to multiple criminal activities, remains in jail since 2014.

“Many women gangsters have grown up in environments steeped in crime, where the possibility of leading a law-abiding life is difficult,” says Vikram Singh, former DGP, Uttar Pradesh. “They often use fronts such as beauty parlours, imitation jewellery shops and other small businesses to conceal their identities. These establishments can also serve as channels for money laundering. And since they share the proceeds of crime, they are as much a part of the syndicate as anyone else.”

Women gang members often use fronts such as beauty parlours, imitation jewellery shops and other small businesses to conceal their real identities. These establishments can also serve as channels for money laundering. And since they share in the proceeds of crime, they are as much a part of the syndicate as anyone else

-Vikram Singh, Former DGP, Uttar Pradesh

Meeran Chadha Borwankar, who headed the Mumbai Crime Branch and the National Crime Records Bureau, had handled cases involving female underworld figures such as Chhota Rajan’s wife Sujata aka Nani as well as Parkar in the 1990s and 2000s. “But unlike Nani and Haseena—who were drawn into the underworld largely because of family ties — today there are women who are pulled in by the allure of glamour and visibility. The fact that some gangsters maintain active social media profiles only reinforces that shift,” she says.

Unlike Nani (wife of Chhota Rajan) and Haseena (sister of Dawood Ibrahim)—who were drawn into the underworld largely because of family ties—today there are women who are pulled in by the allure of glamour and visibility. The fact that some gangsters maintain active social media profiles only reinforces that shift

-Meeran Chadha Borwankar, Former Head, Crime Branch, Mumbai

Take Zoya Khan. An operative allegedly linked to the Bishnoi group, her arrest last year exposed an unexpected double life—she was a regular at high-profile social gatherings, dressed in designer threads. She had an Instagram presence with a sizable following but they were not privy to one fact—that she was the wife of a young Delhi-based gangster, Hashim Baba.

THE NEW RECRUITS
A troubling pattern emerges from these cases: kingpins are scouting for young, socially savvy women— often digitally connected and less likely to attract suspicion—as recruits in their networks.

“With urban society itself in transition, more women are being drawn into gangsterism in pursuit of easy money and a sense of happiness—despite the risk of social stigma,” says Shashi Bhushan Singh, associate professor of sociology, Delhi School of Economics.

Anu Dhankar was just 19 when she allegedly lured a man to a Burger King outlet in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden in 2024. He was shot dead by her accomplices. Investigators later alleged she had been working for a gangster called Himanshu Bhau, believed to be operating from Portugal. According to reports citing unnamed investigators, Dhankar allegedly confessed that she joined the gang after Bhau promised her a life of luxury in US.

Former DGP Singh says that beyond active participation, many female gangsters also provide crucial emotional backing and logistical support. “They are not just willing accomplices; they often serve as shock absorbers for their male counterparts,” he says.

Many women who are drawn into gangster networks have turbulent personal histories—broken marriages or instability at home. “Disorganisation of family or broken homes can, at times, push women towards gangsterism,” says Kamei Aphun, associate professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. But it need not just be that.

Disorganisation of family or broken homes can, at times, push women towards gangsterism. While economic motives—the lure of earning more—cannot be ruled out, psychological factors such as a desire for revenge, along with a quest for power in a male-dominated world, are equally significant drivers behind such decisions

-Kamei Aphun, sociologist, Delhi School of Economics

“While economic motives —the lure of earning more— cannot be ruled out, psychological factors such as a desire for revenge and a quest for power in a male-dominated world are equally significant drivers behind such decisions,” he adds.

Anuradha Chaudhary became Revolver Rani after a share-trading venture that she ran with her then husband, Felix Deepak Minz, failed and she found herself heavily in debt. She began to live with a gangster, Anandpal Singh, who was killed in a police encounter in Churu in 2017. A prominent operative in organised crime circles, she has been allegedly involved in kidnappings and extortions. But it was her wedding to Sandeep alias Kala Jatheri, a member of the Bishnoi syndicate, who came out on parole for the ceremony, that brought her to the limelight in 2024. Her photos, in a pink sari with hennaed hands, went viral.

LONG WAY FROM CHAMBAL
Revolver Rani and Phoolan Devi are separated by time and circumstances. Referring to Phoolan, who took up arms in response to the violence inflicted on her, Aditi Narayani Paswan, associate professor, Dr Ambedkar International Centre, says, “Women’s entry into gangs—often against the backdrop of family breakdowns like disputes or divorce—signals normlessness, where rapid social change erodes traditional roles while creating an ecosystem shaped by shared stories of marginalisation and injustice.” The underworld —now featuring younger, more visible women in key roles—has moved on from those days.

The era of territorial gangsterism—by dacoit gangs in Chambal, for instance— too is largely over, says Singh. “Profits from today’s cybercrime are a thousand times more than what years of banditry in Chambal could yield,” he says, adding that modern syndicates— often run from abroad—require little more than a few hundred foot soldiers, including women, and sophisticated weapons.

For law enforcement agencies, the real challenge is not just identifying gangsters who blend in as ordinary citizens running small businesses, but assembling enough evidence to secure convictions. “In the mid-2000s, the Mumbai Police knew that Haseena was extorting money from builders. But given Dawood’s notoriety, people were too frightened to file complaints,” recalls Borwankar, who then headed the Mumbai Crime Branch. “We were relieved when someone finally came forward. But Haseena got wind of it, disappeared — and then reappeared dramatically in court.”

That 2007 moment had a cinematic afterlife in the film Haseena Parkar , where Shraddha Kapoor, playing Haseena, arrives at a sessions court in a kaali-peeli taxi with a few other women—all of them in burqas, all of them with their faces covered. Who was the real Parkar? Finally, she lifted her veil and revealed her identity.

The scene captures the paradox of India’s underworld: anonymity is power, and revelation, when it comes, is nothing short of a spectacle.