Sachin Sawant murder in Mumbai: CCTV footage unclear, but captures one attacker

Contractor who was with Sachin Sawant, one of the residents opposing revamp of their chawl detained

While a CCTV camera near Ganesh Krupa chawl in Kandivli (East), where Shiv Sena leader Sachin Sawant was shot dead on Sunday, captured the image of one of the two attackers, it is not of good quality, according to crime branch sources. They now plan to enhance the image, so they can identify the person.

Sawant was shot dead in a small lane between his home and a Shiv Sena branch office (shakha) around 8pm on Sunday (FILE)

A special team of officers from police stations across west and north region of Mumbai police is working on the case. Unit 12 of the local crime branch, too, is carrying out a parallel probe.

Sawant was shot dead in a small lane between his home and a Shiv Sena branch office (shakha) around 8pm on Sunday. According to the police, Sawant was returning on a Royal Enfield bike with contractor Jaganath Verma when one of the two men called out to Sawant as ‘Bhau (brother)’.

As Sawant stopped to see who it was, the men came closer and one of them shot at him in point blank range on the chest. The assailants fled on foot, dropping five live rounds of the country-made 9mm pistol at the spot. Police said they later went on a bike.

Sawant fell to the ground, while Verma went running to his home, said police. His relatives rushed him to a hospital. As it was dark, the police are finding it difficult to get witnesses and are unable to spot the accused in the CCTV footage.

Verma has been detained for questioning.

Based on statements given by Sawant’s family, the police are probing if differences over a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project in the chawl led to the murder. One person from the opposite party was detained soon after the incident.

There are several hundreds of slums in the chawl and Akash Developers wanted to develop all under SRA project. As the slums are near the posh Lokhandwala area in Kandivli (East), the locals said each flat would cost over Rs50 lakh after redevelopment, bringing the cost of the project to several hundred crores.