Murder under Mantralaya’s nose

Bodies of three gangsters, who were shot dead by the police lying at the J J Hospial morgue. MUMBAI, Aug 19: Barely an hour before Chief ...

Bodies of three gangsters, who were shot dead by the police lying at the J J Hospial morgue.

MUMBAI, Aug 19: Barely an hour before Chief Minister Manohar Joshi claimed at a press briefing that the law and order in Mumbai was “well under control,” a prominent builder, Natwarlal Mohanlal Desai, was shot dead at Tulsiani Chambers at Nariman Point during the lunch hour a fact he was ironically unaware of. And within hours of the brutal murder, three men were killed in a police encounter outside film producer B R Chopra’s residence (see Newsline for full reports).

The two incidents, coming in the wake of Gulshan Kumar’s murder just last week, brought into sharp focus the deteriorating law and order situation in the city as also the differences between Manohar Joshi and his deputy Gopinath Munde on how to deal with the situation.

Munde, who has already recommended the transfer of Mumbai Police Commissioner Subhash Malhotra for his alleged failure to tackle the problem, has now demanded action from the Chief Minister. Immediately after news of the shooting came in, Munde apparently expressed his displeasure to Joshi for dilly-dallying on his recommendation to shift Malhotra to the Police Housing and Welfare Corporation (as reported by this paper on Tuesday).

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The Munde-Joshi `encounter’ happened even as the Chief Minister was winding up his press meet and preparing to leave when he was informed of Desai’s killing just about 100 metres away from Mantralaya. Even as Joshi emerged from the pressroom, visibly shaken, he was accosted by Munde who wanted to discuss a “serious matter”. Both of them went into the chamber of Minister of State for Home Gajanan Kirtikar, who was asked to wait outside. They were closeted for a good 30 minutes.

Though Munde declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting, senior officials confirmed that he was unhappy with Joshi for not acting on his written recommendation of August 12 to shift Malhotra and for keeping the file pending for nearly a week.

At a time when the law and order situation in the metropolis was deteriorating by the day, it would not be proper for the government to allow Malhotra to continue, Munde reasoned and demanded that the Chief Minister take a decision on the matter, either way, in 24 hours. Though it is not known if Joshi promised Munde as much, his references to Munde’s recommendation during the press meet, were far from encouraging. When reporters asked him when he would see the file on Malhotra, Joshi said: “Several files are marked to me. I have not taken any decision on these files.” However, he said, he would not hesitate to take stern action against Malhotra and even mentioned that he had taken note of Bal Thackeray’s description of Malhotra as a “scare-crow” who has failed to handle the situation.

But, by late night, there were indications that Joshi might not acquiesce to Munde’s demand and that Malhotra might yet survive. Highly placed sources in Mantralaya said though Joshi cleared all other proposals of Munde (submitted along with the recommendation to shift Malhotra) late in the evening, he has not cleared Malhotra’s transfer.