Mumbai: When social worker Mauris Noronha invited him to do a Facebook Live with him at his IC colony office in Mumbai’s northern suburb of Borivali Thursday evening, 40-year-old Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Abhishek Ghosalkar seemingly didn’t think much of it. It was true that the two had been feuding for over two years, but Noronha, 48, had been extending him an olive branch.
What followed, therefore, shocked everyone in the area — self-described social worker shot Ghosalkar five times while still livestreaming, and then turned the gun on himself. Four of the bullets hit Ghosalkar, a former corporator, on his shoulder, while the fifth caught him in the abdomen.
Noronha died almost instantly, and Ghosalkar, a former municipal corporator, succumbed to his wounds on the way to the hospital. One person has been detained in the case so far.
“When I went to see what happened, I saw a shattered glass door and Abhishek sir falling off, all wounded, and Mauris holding the gun. We all then rushed him to a nearby hospital,” Lalchand Pal, a friend and a colleague of Ghosalkar, told ThePrint. Pal is one of the prime complainants in the case.
The shooting took place less than a week after a BJP MLA fired at a leader of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena inside a police station in Ulhasnagar on the outskirts of Mumbai. The two events together have prompted the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to try to corner Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the state’s home portfolio.
In his statement to the media, Sanjay Raut, an MP from Shiv Sena (UBT) — Ghosalkar’s party — claimed that the state’s Eknath Shinde government was being run “by goons for goons” and that the state’s police had become “protectors of goons”. Raut had accompanied Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray to meet Ghosalkar’s family Friday.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole said his party members will meet the Governor Saturday to voice their concerns over law and order situation in the state.
On his part, Fadnavis has said that the case “should not be politicised”. For now, his government has transferred the investigation to the Mumbai crime branch.
The incident appears to be be “fallout of a personal dispute”, he told the media.
“The death of former corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar was very unfortunate. He had a long career ahead of him. I would like to appeal to everybody — don’t politicise the incident. It’s not right. The incident took place due to personal rivalry and to equate it to a breakdown in law and order in Maharashtra is far-fetched,” he said.
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The shootout that was livestreamed
Ghosalkar had been a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from 2012 to 2017 and is survived by his wife Tejasvee Ghosalkar, a corporator, and a young daughter. His father, former Dahisar MLA Vinod Ghosalkar, is loyalist of the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction.
According to Borivali residents, he and Norohna had been having a feud for years. On Thursday, however, Noronha, also known in the area as Mauris Bhai, invited the politician for a “saree distribution” programme in the area, Pal told ThePrint.
“Abhishek sir told me around 11 am that Mauris wants to do a programme with us in the evening and asked me to bring our workers. Accordingly, I gathered our workers around 5-6 pm,” he said.
That morning, Ghosalkar allegedly got a call from Noronha inviting him to his office. When the former corporator got there with a few workers, the self-described social worker “welcomed Ghosalkar, invited him inside his office, and asked us to wait outside”, Pal said, adding that they were also told about a Facebook Live that would end the feud.
According to some witnesses in the area, power went out around that time. When it came back, gunshots rang out, they told ThePrint.
‘Political rivalry’
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Noronha shot to fame in the area. In 2021, the Maharashtra government honoured him with a “Covid Warrior” award for his efforts.
Soon, he began habouring ambitions to enter active politics, even announcing that he wanted to contest local body elections from the area on one of his live streams.
In 2022, however, Noronha was arrested on charges of rape and blackmail and spent nearly three months in jail. According to media reports, Noronha held Ghosalkar responsible for “framing” him, even saying frequently that he wouldn’t “spare” him.
It was a political rivalry, Pal told ThePrint. “Mauris Norohna wanted to show off his social work by doing regular Facebook Live streams. He always wanted to show Abhishek Ghosalkar up,” he said.
In their official statement, Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch said they had arrested Amrendra Mishra, Noronha’s bodyguard. Statements of more than eight people have been registered so far, the statement said. The pistol that Noronha used to shoot Ghosalkar belongs to Mishra, media reports said, adding that the investigation will focus on various aspects of the case, including whether Noronha was drunk at the time of the incident.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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