THANE: Manoj Mhatre, 53-year-old Congress corporator from Bhiwandi was brutally killed by eight masked men on Tuesday night. An FIR has been filed against Manoj’s cousin Prashant and seven others. However, no arrests have been made yet.
“The assailants fired three bullets at Mhatre, one of which struck him in the back. They also chopped off one of his arms. He was first rushed to Jupiter Hospital in Thane where he was declared brought dead. Eyewitnesses have identified the accused. We suspect them to be from Bhiwandi and have launched a manhunt to arrest them,” Manoj Patil, deputy commissioner of police of Bhiwandi zone, told the Express.
The police, however, are yet to recover the gun and the sword used in the crime, he added.
Meanwhile, bone-chilling footage of the brutal incident has gone viral over social media. The CCTV footage of Mhatre’s parking lot shows two unidentified men attacking him with a gun and then a machete. Stunned by the sudden attack, Mhatre falls on the ground as one of the culprits shoots him in the chest, while the other hammers him with a machete.
Mhatre, who resided at the Oswalwadi area, was attacked by eight men around 9.30PM while his driver was parking the car. He had returned home after attending a meeting. While six of them attacked Mhatre, the remaining caught the driver and threatened him of dire consequences if he tried to save the corporator, the police said.
Mhatre’s political career began when he was elected to Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation in 2001. He was known as a close confident of senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane.