Kalyan corporator shot dead in bazaar

Aggarwal was on his way to a Shiv temple near his house when the assailants, who were waiting for him in a queue outside a hakim’s clinic, caught him by surprise and fired at him. One of the bullets hit him just above the navel.

Eye-witnesses said Aggarwal dropped his pooja thali and tried to run for cover when the other bullet pierced his head between the left eye and ear.

Surprisingly no one in the busy bazaar raised an alarm. Shopkeepers pulled down their shutters as soon as the shots rung out in the air leaving Aggarwal lying in a pool of blood. Thekillers in the meantime pushed an auto driver out of his vehicle (name and number withheld on police request) and fled in his vehicle towards Dombivli. The auto driver immediately reported the theft to the police control but did not say anything about the murder. The control in turn alerted PSI W S Pawar of the Valli Peer police chowky, who along with constables G F Sawant and M B Tare and a traffic constable R P Patil began chasing the auto and caught up with it at Pathri Pul – a narrow bridge – in a traffic bottleneck.

When the assailants saw the cops they fled toward the railway tracks below. While two of them managed to escape one of them was caught. As soon as the cops caught hold of him he began pleading “Maine kisi ko nahi mara (I haven’t killed anybody),” taking the cops by surprise. Realising the gravity of the situation they then went back with the assailant to the murder spot and sent Aggrawal’s body, which was still lying untouched, for post-mortem.

Aggarwal, a dazzling success inconstruction industry, had quite a Robin Hood image among local residents. “He had helped my daughter get admission in college,” said a mourner outside the Aggarwal residence. He had grown very fast in the last five years soon after he got into real estate business. He owned large plots of land at prime locations apart from a jewellery shop which he had set up only four years ago. One of these plots, off the Godrej Hill, was donated by him to start a college named M Aggarwal College.

Sources said his success in the real estate business was not unblemished and that he had with the Arun Gawli gang. His ties with the gang grew stronger after he became the vice-president of the District Youth Congress. This, the sources believe, made him a target of the Manchekar gang. Police, however, are not willing as yet to support any one theory. A senior officer said all angles were being probed and that their first priority was to nab the other two killers.

Those close to Aggarwal’s family said he had mentioned hisbeing followed by some men a few days back, but had refused to seek police protection. His sister, who refused to divulge her name, said she and others in the family had time and again asked him to seek police cover.

This is the third death of a builder since December in Kalyan. While Praful Patel, a top builder, was shot dead allegedly by the Chhota Rajan gang recently, another builder Bhavesh Kakkar had committed suicide in February. Aggrawal is the second corporator after Kedari Redekar to be shot dead in recent times.