Why Mauris Norhona killed Abhishek Ghosalkar on Facebook Live

Mauris Norhona, a rape accused who spent three months in jail, allegedly killed former Shiv Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar due to a deep grudge against him.

MUMBAI: The humiliation of being a rape accused and spending three months in jail likely prompted Mauris Norhona aka Mauris Bhai to kill former Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar on Thursday. Norhona, 52, believed that the rape case against him was lodged at the behest of Ghosalkar, based on a complaint by a woman he knew personally. Though he tried to make peace with the Sena leader after being released on bail in October 2022, family members said these were ‘band-aid’ measures, and he held a deep grudge against the latter despite the passage of two years.

Mauris Noronha (left) with Uddhav Sena leader Abhishek Ghosalkar on a Facebook live on Thursday in which the Sena leader was shot by Noronha.

“He often said that he would not leave Ghosalkar. We always thought he was saying so in anger, but never thought he would actually do it someday,” said his wife Serena Norhona; the duo got married after Mauris Norhona returned from the United States 11 years ago.

Serena’s mother Jessy Vaaz said that Norhona was most concerned about the people of IC Colony in Borivali West. “But since the rape case was filed in 2022, he always blamed Ghosalkar for framing him,” she said. Ghosalkar was friends with the complainant and Norhona was appalled when she registered a rape and cheating case against him, she added.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that Norhona had called her to his residence in 2018 to settle a monetary dispute and raped her by threatening that her husband would be killed by the Dawood Ibrahim gang.

“He was very temperamental and suspected that Ghosalkar prompted the woman to put him behind bars using his political clout, just to intimidate him,” said Vaaz.

Norhona was also booked in another case in 2022 based on a complaint by Abhishek Ghosalkar’s wife Tejaswi after he commented on her social media post. He tried to make peace with Ghosalkar last Christmas, after his release from jail in late 2022, but his family members said the efforts were like “band-aid” (temporary measure).

“Mauris never discussed his plans with me or anyone else. I was shocked when I heard about his involvement in the shootout,” said Serena, who was at her office on Thursday when she received a call from an acquaintance informing her about the incident.

“I thought it must be some political rivalry and did not bother much. But soon, I got two more calls one after the other,” she said. The first caller informed her that Mauris had shot Ghosalkar and the second caller said that Mauris had shot himself too. “I just froze after hearing the back-to-back calls,” she said.

Her mother Jessy was at home when she got a call from an acquaintance about the shootout. Hearing that Mauris was involved, she rushed to his house to be with her 11-year-old grand-daughter who was alone at home then.

On Friday afternoon, Serena and Jessy were the only persons waiting outside the Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle for doctors to complete the post-mortem on Norhona’s body. “Since we were requested to perform the last rites of Mauris away from the IC Colony, we are taking his body to the Mahalakshmi cemetery,” said Serena.