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Journalism of Courage
Mauris Noronha, who shot dead former Shiv Sena UBT’s BMC corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar on Thursday and later died by suicide, was considered to be a rival of Abhishek and the two had tensions brewing between them in the IC Colony area of Borivali in the past. The two had reconciled just two months ago during Christmas in December. Mauris also offered to jointly work with Abhishek in social service.
After not being on talking terms for a long period, Mauris had put up hoardings/posters in the area with Abhishek’s photo on them, claiming they were not rivals. According to local residents and politicians, Mauris was not affiliated to any political party but has been meeting politicians from all parties and was looking for an opportunity to join a political party and contest the upcoming BMC elections.
The residents said that since Covid, he had started doing social service in the area and had been helping people by distributing food and other items and had become popular in the area.
Several banners and posters were put up in the area with the photo of Mauris, with a message ‘vote for Mauris Bhai’, indicating that he was branding his image as social worker with the aim of joining politics and contest elections.
Mauris also had considerable fan following on social media with his Facebook page “Mauris Bhai” having nearly 50,000 followers. “He was not affiliated to any political party but has been meeting all politicians and was clicking photos with them which he would later use to create his clout in the area. He would also somehow bring money and carry out social activities and create his name as a social worker. After Covid, he became popular in the area because of his social work during pandemic. Naturally with time he got politically ambitious and wanted to enter politics and contest elections,” Rajan Nadkarni, a local residence of IC Colony, said. “Abhishek, however, was not bothered about the way Mauris was gaining popularity since Abhishek already had a strong presence in the area and Mauris’s image was not that big and great,” Nadkarni added.
A source also said Mauris has been approaching almost every political party, looking for an opportunity to get inducted into them and contest the upcoming polls. However, he could not succeed. He is also said to have requested Abhishek to induct him into Sena UBT. Sachin More, local Sena UBT’s shakha pramukh, claimed that even though Mauris was not officially attached to any political party or had any official position, he would still work as an ordinary person and has been close to many local politicians from the area and also had a criminal background.
“He had a criminal record. Several police complaints were filed against him. There was no such enmity or business rivalry between Mauris and Abhishek, but Mauris would think that Abhishek was instrumental in registering three FIRs against him at MHB police station including that of rape and cheating along with others. He was also in jail for a few months after the FIR was registered. We knew about this issue brewing between them but we did not know that Mauris would do such a thing,” More said.
The Mumbai Police confirmed that at least three criminal cases including of rape, cheating and outraging modesty of a woman were registered against Mauris and he was in jail for over 5 months in one of the cases.
Lalchand Pal, a friend of Abhishek, who is also the complainant in the murder case, said that Abhishek and Mauris were not in talking terms but suddenly during Christmas, Mauris on his own put up two or three banners in the area along with a photo of Abhishek, stating that he will be working with Abhishek and there is no rivalry.
Meanwhile, the police were deployed in strength at the IC Colony area in Borivali on Friday after the incident and roads looked empty with shopkeepers choosing to keep their shops shut in the area.
Hundreds of people including Shiv Sena UBT president Uddhav Thackeray and other Sena UBT leaders visited the residence of Abhishek on Friday to express condolences to Ghosalkar family.
Abhishek’s funeral was held in Borivali which was attended by thousands people including several senior leaders of Sena UBT and public representatives.
