Mumbai: In a horrifying incident, two persons opened indiscriminate fire at a crowd dispersing after Navratri celebrations, in Kandivali west suburb, killing one and injuring at least three others, early on Saturday.
The Kandivali Police and the local Crime Branch, which had launched a manhunt for the unknown assailants, managed to track the duo to Gujarat’s Navsari town on Saturday evening and arrested them, said an official.
According to the official, around 12.15 a.m. the two men sped to the Laljipada area on scooter and started shooting blindly at the people dispersing after a local Navratri programme in the middle-class residential locality.
Amid the screaming, shouting and people running away, the assailants’ bullets managed to kill one and wounded three others, including two pedestrians, he added.
They have been identified as Ankit Yadav, who died on the spot, while Abhilash Dabholkar, Prakash Narain and Manish Gupta who sustained gunshot injuries, have been admitted to the BMC’s Shatabdi Hospital for treatment.
Moving swiftly, the Kandivali Police set up a team to trace the killers and finally caught up with them in Navsari town as their incident struck terror among Navratri revellers.
They shall be brought to Mumbai later tonight and produced before a court on Sunday, the official said, though the police have ruled out any possibility of a gang-war.
Earlier on Saturday, locals claimed that the assailants may be youths living in the vicinity and suspect it to be vendetta killing for some previous enmity, but the police have not commented on the motives yet.
Deputy Commissioner of Police-Zone XI Vishal Thakur said that the police teams are probing various angles to shootout, including from where the guns were acquired, the exact number of rounds fired, business or personal rivalries and other issues.
(IANS)
