An unidentified man, seeking film producer-director Mahesh Bhatt, opened fire outside his office in Juhu today morning. Ten minutes later, a caller identifying himself as gangster Ravi Pujari claimed responsibility for the act. Bhatt was at his residence at the time.According to the police, at 11.30 am, a man in his late twenties came to the Shubh Jeevan Housing Society on Gulmohar Road in Juhu on a motorbike and walked up to Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt’s office on the fourth floor. Leaving his revolver on a garbage bin lid outside the flat, he was let in by the cook, Baabu.‘‘Once inside the flat, the man asked for either Mahesh or Mukesh Bhatt. He was told that Mukesh was in Dubai for an award ceremony and Mahesh was not at office,’’ said Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Arup Patnaik.‘‘He then started hurling abuses at the staff and later stepped out of the flat, loaded his revolver and fired a single shot on the floor outside. He then left the building on his motorbike.’’According to police sources, before leaving the office, the man left a white envelope on a table. Inside was a blank sheet of paper with the words ‘Ravi Pujari’ written on and an international phone number.Eyewitnesses say that the man was lean, wore blue jeans and a chocolate-coloured T-shirt and sported a stubble. With statements from Bhatts’ staff and the security guard, the police are preparing sketches of the youth.Reacting to the incident, Mahesh Bhatt said: ‘‘I do not know Ravi Pujari. I have never received any threat calls from the underworld in the past. I feel I have been targeted because I have always tried to speak up for the underprivileged in society.’’ He added that he would not ask the police for protection. ‘‘It is up to the police to decide whether I need it,’’ Bhatt said.
