Top builder shot dead at Nariman Point

The body of Natwarlal Mohanlal Desai kept at Bombay Hospital, Bombay. August 19: A builder and director of Shanti Star Constructions Natw...

The body of Natwarlal Mohanlal Desai kept at Bombay Hospital, Bombay.

August 19: A builder and director of Shanti Star Constructions Natwarlal Mohanlal Desai was today shot dead by two unidentified gunmen at 2.30 pm outside his Tulsiani Chambers office at Nariman Point. After pumping six bullets into Desai’s body, the killers walked away even as a stunned lunch-hour crowd watched in dismay. A few hundred metres away at Mantralaya, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi was holding forth on the “satisfactory law and order situation” in a post-Cabinet meet press conference.

Police said Desai was shot in the head and neck from a close range as he stepped out of his maroon-coloured Maruti Esteem (J-15 H 6464) to enter his office on the ground floor. The assailants, who walked in through the front gate pumped in six bullets into Desai’s body from a .38 bore pistol. Police, however, said only one of them opened fire. The killers escaped from a gate on the other side of the 13-storeyed building. Desai’s business partner Rameshbahi Shah, who was also in the car, and the driver Kadam escaped unhurt.

Desai ran into his office after he was shot leaving a trail of blood on the steps. He was rushed to the Bombay Hospital by his driver, where he was pronounced dead before admission. His body was later sent to the J J hospital for post-mortem.

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When police arrived at the spot none of the drivers of the vehicles parked in front of Desai’s office were present. A visibly scared watch and ward staff of the building also refused to talk to the police or press. V D Mane, a security guard who was at the main entrance when the murder took place, said he heard gun-shots. “But, by the time I could reach the spot the assailants had fled. I could not see them as they walked towards the rear side of the building and escaped from the gate on the other side."

Joint commissioner of police (crime) R S Sharma, who visited the site, said Desai had not made any complaints to the police regarding any threat to his life. Though he refused to speculate on who could be behind the murder on the spot, he later told Express Newsline that police believe that it was Gawli’s handiwork. “Prima facie evidence suggests that Desai was killed at the behest of Arun Gawli,” he said, adding that about six months ago, Desai was summoned to Dagdi Chawl, though he did not go.

Police recovered Desai’s spectacles and a handkerchief soaked in blood from the spot. A copy of the Janmabhoomi newspaper was also lying there with blood splattered all over it. Police have also recovered a few empty cartridges which have been sent for tests. Desai had wide interests in construction business and his firm Shanti Star Constructions had built huge residential colonies in Mira-Bhayander during the real-estate boom. However, construction companies suffered major losses after the slump in the market set in. Sources in the accommodation industry said there are no takers for the flats in Mira-Bhayander area now.