Police hunt for Kalyan doctor’s killers; hoteliers down shuttters

The chronology is as follows:

7.30 pm : Three assailants posing as patients join the queue opposite the reception

7.45 pm: Dr Shetty who has promised his wife, son and daughter Diksha (12) a dinner out for her birthday asks them to wait. Says he’ll be back after attending the patients and enters consulting room.

7.50 pm: Sunanda Vijay Taru (35) goes in first to pay fees for treatment and the doctor makes enquiries about her prognosis.

8 pm: Assailants enter the room. When asked which one is the patient one of them pulls out a revolver and fires a bullet frompoint-blank range in the centre of his forehead. Alarmed, Sunanda tries to flee. They fire at her too and she is hit in the thigh. (She has been shifted to the LTMG hospital, Sion). They continue shooting Deepak on his face, chest and in the back. He slumps down on the table.

8.05 pm: Assailants rush outside the hospital shouting that they belonged to the Manchekar gang, and anyone daring to stop them would be shot. The then escape in an autorickshaw

Thane Commissioner of Police told The Indian Express, “There is a strong indication that the killing was over money.”

However, about the involvement of the Manchekar gang has not been ascertained yet, he said, adding “There is no precedence of assailants announcing their identity before leaving.”

“Other gangs are finding it increasingly convenient to use the Manchekar name in bid to mislead the public and the police,” said Mohite.

Shetty had approached the police on Sept 27, 1997 about some threatening calls. “However, the calls stoppedand there was no further follow-up from his side,” Mohite informed. “It wasn’t until Sept 28, last, that he approached the police again.” This time he had applied to the Mahatma Phule Police for a revolver licence.

“I had met him recently while calling on one of my officers who was being treated at the same hospital,” pointed out Mohite who expressed surprise, “He never mentioned any problems he was facing with the underworld.”

The entire township witnessed an eerie calm as shocked residents learned about the incident. Unmindful of the festive season which begins tomorrow shops wore a deserted look as wary residents preferred not to move out. The funeral at noon was attended by thousands of residents for whom Shetty was a samaritan. “He would never charge fees from the poor,” pointed out Deva Malhatkar, an autorickshaw driver whose son had been treated for free by Shetty.

All medical establishments in Dombivili, Kalyan, Vithalwadi, Ulhasnagar, Shahad, Titwala and Ambernath downed shutters inprotest in response to a call given by the Kalyan chapter of the Indian Medical Association and the Medical Club of Kalyan. The medical fraternity also led a silent protest march wearing black badges soon after the funeral. The march was led by State Labour Welfare Minister Shabir Sheikh, who alongwith the ex-Rajya Sabha MP and State BJP vice-president Ram Kapse had come to visit the family of the deceased. “I knew him as a person who would go out of his way to the needy,” said Sheikh. The march wound its way through the main areas of the town before ending at the DCP’s office where a memorandum expressing outrage and anguish at the killing was submitted to the ACP, Thane SS Wagal.

“Doctors need to be protected,” says the memorandum. All food establishments joined in the impromptu bandh.