In a shocking incident, a city cricketer-cum-coach was hacked to death by three unidentified assailants at Bhandup in north-east Mumbai late on Thursday night.
Rakesh Ambadas Pawar was waylaid and attacked by three men with choppers near Mahavir petrol pump on the Lal Bahadur Shastri Road at Bhandup, when he was going on his scooter along with his female friend. The incident took place between 2345 hrs to 00.30 hrs.
“The victim had suffered gruesome injuries on his face, head and was lying in a pool of blood, “ a senior police official said. Pawar was rushed by the petrol pump employees to the Mulund General hospital, where he was pronounced dead on admission.
Pawar, who was in his mid-thirties, is survived is survived by wife and two children. A district level cricketer, Pawar used to coach to budding cricketers from Bhandup, Mulund, both north-eastern suburbs of Mumbai and Thane, a satellite city of Mumbai.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that Pawar’s murder might have stemmed out of personal enmity.
Having registered a case murder, the Bhandup police are scanning the CCTV footage of the petrol pump to ascertain the identity of the three assailants behind the incident.
The investigators have recorded the statement of Pawar’s female friend.
The police have reason to suspect that Pawar might have been killed at the behest of an influential family from Bhandup, with which the deceased had personal enmity.