Police land up 45 minutes late

Top police brass examining the site of killing of builder Natwarlal Desai in front of his office at Tulsiani Chambers, Nariman Point in Bombay.

August 19: As hundreds of office-goers milled around Tulsiani Chambers, Nariman point, at lunch hour, assailants pumped six bullets into builder Natwarlal Desai. Certainly every one in the area, located about 100 meters from the Mantralaya, heard of the shootout. Except perhaps the Mumbai police which landed at the spot only after 45 minutes. Well after the killers had calmly walked away from the scene of crime. Within 60 minutes of the shootout two things happened: Chief Minister Manohar Joshi addressed his weekly press briefing and assured the reporters present that “all was well” with the law and order situation in the city and at the police headquarters, commissioner of police Subhash Malhotra, whose head Killers walk away; cops arrive late has been on the chopping block following Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde’s recommendation about his transfer, was also addressing the press to laud the city police for having recovered antiques stolen from the Holkars of Indore. Malhotra mentioned about the murder to the press persons present in his chamber at 3.30 pm, while all the senior officers were closetted along with their boss breaking biscuits, gobbling cakes and washing it down with cups of tepid tea.

The first senior officer to reach at the spot was the joint commissioner of police, crime, Ranjit Singh Sharma, who made it only at 4 pm.