Mumbai: Last year, a restaurant in Borivali, a suburb in north Mumbai, announced a unique challenge. Any person who can eat a 4 kg thali, a huge plateful of fried fish, wadas, dal, chicken, rice, sol kadhi, papad, and so on — within 45 minutes wins Rs 51,000. If those who have the stomach for it attempt and lose, they only pay the cost of the thali.
The challenge also had an unusual name — the Mauris corporator thali, named after the person sponsoring the challenge, Mauris Quentin Oliver Noronha, who become the talk of the town after he allegedly shot dead former Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar in the middle of a Facebook Live before killing himself.
Locals ThePrint spoke to say Noronha’s ambitions were as large as his sponsored and abundant thali. He spent the last three-odd years positioning himself as a candidate from his neighbourhood in the next election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and plastered his face on hoardings announcing philanthropic initiatives all around Borivali’s IC Colony.
The term of the BMC’s general body had expired in March 2022. Fresh elections are yet to be announced.
“His political ambition was the root of his rivalry with Ghosalkar. Mauris Noronha spent a few months in jail as an accused for an alleged rape, and his contention was that Ghosalkar has deliberately framed him to get a competitor out of the way. This was, however, never proved,” a local politician who knew Mauris Noronha told ThePrint.
The ward from where Noronha wanted to contest the next BMC election is currently represented by Tejasvee Ghosalkar, Abhishek’s wife, and was earlier represented by Abhishek himself. His father Vinod Ghosalkar has been associated with the Shiv Sena (UBT) for decades, climbing up the ladder from holding administrative positions in the undivided Sena’s shakhas (the lowest administrative unit) to a corporator and then an MLA.
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‘Mauris Bhai’
Locals from Borivali who knew Noronha, a resident of IC Colony, say he would refer to himself as “Mauris Bhai” and had created a brand out of it. The words ‘MB’ would be embedded on several of his possessions — his clothes, cars, and locket pendants.
Noronha never branded himself as being close to any one party. He invited politicians of all hues for his events and had even met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde when the leader had visited the neighbourhood about a year ago.
On his website, Noronha, now 48, described how he was raised in Mumbai’s Dhobi Talao area and grew up to be an international poker player.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Noronha was known for his generous social work in the IC Colony neighbourhood.
A resident of IC Colony who did not wish to be named said: “One could see that he was doing a lot of work for the community so some of us got associated with him to the extent of his social activities. Whenever there was any event that he organised for the Catholic community, he would give my number to people to coordinate with.”
His social welfare activities included taking people free of cost to the infant Jesus shrine in Nashik, donating ration kits and health essentials, organising sports tournaments and community events and so on.
The rape charge
In 2022, Borivali’s MHB Police Colony police station arrested Noronha on charges of rape, assaulting a woman, criminal intimidation, cheating and criminal breach of trust. He was released on bail after spending close to three months behind bars, only after a chargesheet was filed in the case. In his bail order, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, Noronha argued that a “false FIR was registered against him due to political rivalry.”
According to the bail order dated 14 September, 2022, the complainant had said that she and her husband — a fitness adviser at a local gym — met Noronha at the gym. The couple had in 2014 told him about their intention to sell one of their properties in Pune and that they were expecting a sum of Rs 1.5 crore to come through over the next few months from the transaction.
The same year, Noronha gifted the complainant a mobile phone for her birthday. He also allegedly told them that he had a patent in selling foreign beauty products and that if they invested in the business they would get a 200-300 percent return. The complainant and her husband allegedly paid Noronha Rs 88 lakh and another Rs 2.64 lakh supposedly as tax.
According to the bail order, Noronha would allegedly evade questions on when the complainant and her husband were likely to get their money back. In March 2018, Noronha allegedly invited the complainant alone to his house to collect her money. He allegedly took objectionable pictures with her on his mobile phone and then used them to blackmail her into having intercourse with him.
“Over the last few months, it had seemed as if Noronha and Ghosalkar had made up. There often used to be banners with both their photos and names across the neighbourhood. It seemed as if the two of them had patched up and gotten together for the welfare of the ward,” a second resident who did not wish to be named told ThePrint.
“Turns out, it was all an illusion.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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