Vakola station getting back on its feet, slowly

Dilip Shirke shot Vilas Joshi and Joshi’s orderly Balasaheb Aher before turning the gun on himself.

Policemen give gun salute for Senior Inspector Vilas Joshi at Chandanwadi crematorium on Sunday. (Source: Express photo by Pradip Das)

By: Neha Kulkarni

The Vakola police station, witness to a violent murder and suicide, bore a funereal air on Sunday. While small groups of people discussed the incident among each other, much like the way they do when there has been a death in the locality, passers by cast quick, furtive glances at the people assembled there and the television crew lining the lane leading to the police station.

On Saturday night, Assistant Sub Inspector Dilip Shirke shot senior police inspector Vilas Joshi and Joshi’s orderly Balasaheb Aher before turning the gun on himself.

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While Shirke was declared dead before admission at the V N Desai hospital five minutes away, Joshi died while on the operating table at the Lilavati Hospital in Bandra in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Spots of blood still line the tiles of the floor outside Joshi’s cabin, and the barricades put up by the police did nothing to discourage people from standing at staring at the small, red blobs – reminders of the previous night’s events.

Complainants were asked to come later to the police station. Senior police inspector Uttam Kadlak, who on Sunday took over the post occupied by Joshi, said, “We need to keep working. We only faced a little shortage of staff on Sunday morning as many of us were at the funeral. However, we can hardly stop working.”

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