Hours after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Abhishek Ghosalkar was shot dead during a Facebook live interaction with people in north Mumbai, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) targeted the BJP-led Government on Friday by going to town with the photographs of the alleged killer Mauris Noronha alias Mauris Bhai with top leaders, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
Amid appeals by Government not to politicise the murder of Abhishek Ghosalkar, the Opposition MVA charged that there was a breakdown of law and order in the State.
It rooted for the resignation of Fadnavis and imposition of the President’s Rule in Maharashtra.
A former corporator of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 41-year-old Abhishek Ghosalkar was the son of former MLA Vinod Ghosalkar, a close confidant of former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray.
The daring murder of Ghosalkar has sent shock waves through the metropolis, given that Mauris Bhai pumped at least three bullets into Shiv Sena (UBT) leader during his Facebook live interaction with people in Borivali (west) in north Mumbai on Thursday night.
After the shootout, Ghosalkar collapsed and succumbed bullet injuries, while Mauris later shot himself in his office at nearby IC Colony
Ghosalkar and his wife Tejasvee Ghosalkar had till recently represented Ward 1 of BMC On the other hand, Mauris Noronha who had criminal antecedents, too had the ambition to contest the BMC elections from Ward No 1.
Coming as it did just a week after the ruling BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shot at and critically injured an Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leader Mahesh Gaikwad at Ulhasnagar’s Hill Lines Police Station in Thane district, Ghosalkar’s murder gave a handle to the Opposition MVA to take on the BJP-led Maha Yuti government.
Putting out a photo of Mauris Bhai with Chief Minister Shinde, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut wore on X: “Mauris Noronha, who shot Abhishek Ghosalkar, was in Varsha, the Chief Minister’s official bungalow, four days ago. Mauris was offered to join the Shinde Sena.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi too put out a photo-collage of the killer with Koshyari, Shinde, north Mumbai BJP MP Gopal Shetty and Amruta Fadnavis, the banker-singer-social worker and wife of the deputy chief minister, alleging that “the State is witnessing lawlessness like never before”
