2 dead in live-streamed shootout over politics

While Ghosalkar, 41, who sustained 3 bullets was declared dead at Karuna Hospital, Noronha, 52, used one bullet to shoot himself in the head and died on the spot

A shootout, reminiscent of gangland killings of the 1990s, led to the killing of an aspiring politician, Abhishek Ghosalkar, on Thursday evening followed, even more dramatically, by his assailant Mauris Oliver Noronha, then turning the gun upon himself.

2 dead in live-streamed shootout over politics

While Ghosalkar, 41, who sustained 3 bullets was declared dead at Karuna Hospital, Noronha, 52, used one bullet to shoot himself in the head and died on the spot. Ghosalkar’s killing was preceded a 4-minute-long facebook live being streamed on Noronha’s page where the two men address the camera jointly, and speak about starting the new year on a good note, working together for the uplift of the people and undertaking joint initiatives. At a point, Ghosalkar alludes to a past rift between them. The only indication of any tension between the two men is evident in Noronha’s body language. He gets up twice in the middle of the joint broadcast to talk to someone, each time asking Ghosalkar to say a few words.

Ghosalkar whose father Vinod is associated with the Shiv Sena (UBT) had gone to Noronha’s office in IC Colony, Borivali, on Thursday evening around 7 pm to discuss a saree-distribution programme. In the course of the facebook live, Noronha, an activist and political middleman, is heard saying they wanted to refute rumours that all was not well between the two men and that he had invited Abhishek for the saree distribution programme to convey to him that there was no bad blood between them. The invitation was a ruse, as it turned out, to draw Ghosalkar to his office.

That, he was taken by surprise is evident from the last few seconds of the FB live as that follows. a smiling Ghosalkar gets up from his chair and is shot at from a close range. His stunned protests are soon drowned in the din that follows. Accoding to the police, as people who had been waiting outside the office ran in, Noronha shot himself before he could be apprehended. Both men were taken to Karuna Hospital close by but were declared dead soon after.

A senior investigating officer at Borivali said it appeared a political rivalry was at the heart of the shootout. While Ghosalkar, a former corporator from Shiv Sena (UBT) was keen to strengthen his hold in the area, Noronha too wanted to eventually plunge into active politics from IC Colony which has a majority population of Catholics.

Norhona, a seemingly genial and beefy man was known in the area as “Mauris Bhai.” During the pandemic, he became well-known for the food distribution programme he ran, and had since made known to all and sundry that politics was his next stop.

Norhona had been earlier arrested in June 2022 for allegedly raping a 48-year-old woman, the wife of his acquaintance with whom he had some financial transactions. The MHB Colony police had then booked him under sections 376, 420, 354 (B and C), and 506 for rape, outraging modesty of a woman, cheating, and threatening under the Indian Penal Code after the woman alleged that he called her at his residence under the guise of clearing their dues and forced himself upon her. He was arrested by the police at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport as soon as he disembarked from a flight from the US.

The Ghosalkars too were known to the MHB police. In April 2023, an FIR had been filed against him and his wife, also a former corportator, for illegally inaugurating a public swimming pool at Kandarpada at Dahisar. The FIR was registered by MHB police, possibly at the behest of a political rival.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray post on X, “This is very shocking. No fear of law. Wonder if there’s any government working at all.’’