FEBRUARY 5: Manish Shah, a builder and a close associate of slain mill-owner Vallabhbhai Thakkar, was shot dead near his residence at Walkeshwar junction this morning. The killers, suspected to be members of the Arun Gawli gang, pumped in six bullets into him before fleeing the spot. Vallabhbhai Thakkar too was killed in a similar fashion on April 17 last year in an operation which, police believe, was masterminded by Gawli's top-aide Sada Pawle.Eye-witnesses said Shah's killers were waiting for him in a white Premier Padmini in the parking lot of Sagar Mahal building, where Shah lives. The builder came down at around 9.15 am and was getting into his car, when the four assailants rushed towards him and opened fire. As Shah, who received six bullets in his chest, slumped to the ground, the assailants escaped in their car.Shah was rushed to the Harkisandas Hospital, where he was declared dead before admission. The car killers escaped in was later found abandoned near Bhuleshwar temple.The zonal deputycommissioner of police Param Bir Singh said the Gawli gang, after suffering a series of setbacks, was once again becoming active. He added that the killers had been identified and they would be nabbed soon. Preliminary investigations conducted by the Malabar police, under whose jurisdiction the murder took place, have revealed that the assailants were in the age group of 25 to 30 years.Police sources said the shoot-out could be a fallout of a property dispute between Shah and a priest in the area, who had laid claim to a plot which Shah was developing. The priest (whose name the police refused to divulge), it was learnt, had warned Shah of the capabilities of the Gawli gang. The priest had also visited the Dagdi chawl, Gawli gang's main hideout, several times in the past few months.Sources also confirmed that Shah was a close associate of the slain builder and mill-owner Vallabhbhai Thakkar and that the two had often sought the help of the Gawli gang. Shah and Thakkar had constructed three buildings inthe prime residential area of Walkeshwar in South Mumbai in the past two years and, police believe, the duo had paid several crores to the Gawli gang as protection money. However, after the police turned the heat on the gang last year, Shah is believed to have turned his back on them.API Anant Kinjale disclosed that raids were carried out on Dagdi chawl and other Arun Gawli hideouts today, but the shooters managed to escape the police dragnet.This is the third shootout in the last one month involving the Gawli gang. The gang is suspected to have killed Dinesh Jathar, Ashwin Naik's close aide on January 9 at Tardeo and Jayant Jinjire, a Shiv sainik from Lalbaug on January 16. The outfit is also believed to be behind the killing of matka king Kalyanjibhai Bhagat Shah's son Vasantlal at Worli on January 11.
