Over the next few years, a string of attacks followed, including the murder of an alleged conspirator in the Krishna Pillai killing. The BSc student who dreamt of studying automobile engineering in the US was now “gangster” Kumar Pillai. As a teenager in the early 1950s, Kumar’s father Krishna Pillai ran away from home in Colachel near Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Then came the Emergency in 1975, and Mastan, Krishna Pillai and many others were arrested as part of the government’s broader campaign against economic offences. They say he was backed by the Amar Naik gang, whose lead gangster had worked with Krishna Pillai earlier.