Death penalty or an ‘encounter’, pleads Mumbai local train stabbing victim Mayank Lohar’s brother

Mehul, brother of Mayank Lohar and a background dancer in Bollywood, said this happened in Mumbai and should not be allowed to happen anywhere else.

“Hang him or kill him in an encounter,” Mehul Lohar urged the police in an emotional video that has gone viral online. Mehul is the elder brother of 22-year-old Mayank. He was referring to the man who stabbed his brother to death in a local train on Tuesday night.

File Photo of Mayan Lohar. a 22-year-old resident of Virar, who was allegedly stabbed to death on a moving local train following a dispute about closing the coach door during heavy rain. Mumbai, June 24 (Sourced by Raju Shinde/HT )

Mehul, a background dancer in Bollywood, said, “It is very difficult to see a brother die in front of you. This happened in Mumbai and should not be allowed to happen anywhere else.”

Mehul, who has featured in the song Chaleya in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan (2023), had returned home from a shoot in Udaipur to the devastating news of his brother’s death on Tuesday.

The Lohars live in Bhoir Pada in Virar east. They learnt of Mayank’s death when his brother called Mayank’s phone at 12:15am and reached a police officer. “They said Mayank had been hurt on his leg and refused to say any more. Since the last train departed at 12:05 am, we hired a taxi. The police showed us videos, nothing more than what has been circulating online, shot by eye-witnesses,” recalls Mehul. “My brother was killed mercilessly, stabbed on his chest and stomach, with his intestines out. How can he (the killer) do that,” he said.

Mayank was on his way back home from work

“He had been working there for about a year and was there to gain experience as part of his Bachelor’s course. His real ambition was to branch out independently and set up his own business. He wanted his family to live well; his family was always his priority,” said his brother.

The Lohars previously lived in Ambedkar Nagar in Andheri’s MIDC, where Mayank attended a convent school. After he completed his schooling, their house went in for redevelopment, and the family moved to Virar east.

Mayank has a sister and two brothers, the youngest still studying. Mayank’s uncle Laxman Lohar said the boy’s father Ramesh worked as a driver and Mayank was keen to help the family financially.

Ramesh Lohar, 53, is inconsolable. He received a phone call from deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday and urged the state to hang the man who took his son’s life. Ramesh said the accused should be held up as an example so that other parents do not have to see their children “dying so young”.