By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Mumbai local train murder stuns commuters

Mumbai: A routine commute to home on a dark rain-soaked night in a Mumbai local turned into a nightmare when a 22-year-old commuter was allegedly stabbed to death inside a first-class compartment following a heated argument over shutting the train door, late on Tuesday. The victim, identified as Mayank Lohar, 22, worked as a salesman with a private company in Andheri and lived in Virar, nearly 60 km from Churchgate. According to Western Railway (WR) and Government Railway Police (GRP)...

min read

Mumbai local train murder stuns commuters

Mumbai: A routine commute to home on a dark rain-soaked night in a Mumbai local turned into a nightmare when a 22-year-old commuter was allegedly stabbed to death inside a first-class compartment following a heated argument over shutting the train door, late on Tuesday. The victim, identified as Mayank Lohar, 22, worked as a salesman with a private company in Andheri and lived in Virar, nearly 60 km from Churchgate. According to Western Railway (WR) and Government Railway Police (GRP) officials, the shocking incident took place aboard the Churchgate-Nalasopara Fast Local (Train No. 90663), which left Churchgate at 10.05 pm and reached Andheri at 10.42 pm. As the train pulled out of Andheri, heavy rains started lashing the city. Lohar reportedly requested a fellow commuter standing near the doorway to shut the door, as rainwater was blowing into the compartment and inconveniencing those seated inside. The other commuter, wearing a dark shirt and trousers, allegedly refused and it started a heated verbal exchange which quickly escalated into a raging argument as the train raced through Goregaon and Malad. Then, in a horrifying burst of violence, the suspect allegedly pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed Lohar in the abdomen and chest as the train zoomed past Kandivali. Stunned Silence The other terrified commuters watched in stunned silence as the attack unfolded and ended within a matter of minutes claiming the young boy. Writhing in pain and bleeding profusely, Lohar collapsed onto the compartment floor as panic gripped the passengers and they scrambled away from the attacker, who reportedly continued to pace about menacingly. Eyewitnesses later said that as the train slowed while entering Borivali station’s Platform No. 6, the suspect calmly jumped off, ran up the staircase and vanished into the wet darkness. When the train halted at Borivali at 11.04 pm, the other commuters immediately alerted railway authorities. WR, GRP and medical personnel rushed to the platform within minutes with emergency equipment, medicos, porters and a stretcher. Lohar was first rushed to the station’s Emergency Medical Room, where a doctor examined him and declared him dead. His body was later shifted to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali for post-mortem and other legal formalities. Special Teams The brutal killing sent shockwaves across Mumbai’s suburban rail network. In the morning, Borivali GRP Senior Police Inspector Datta Khuperkar said seven special teams were formed and nearly 400 CCTV camera feeds were scrutinised to trace the suspect. The attacker was captured on multiple surveillance cameras, cool and casual, without a hint of remorse, walking out of Borivali station after the attack. Following an intensive 14-hour manhunt, he was tracked down and arrested at Panvel in Raigad. The Borivali GRP has registered a murder case and launched a detailed investigation. As news of the shocking crime spread amid Wednesday’s torrential rains, commuters expressed outrage and disbelief that a trivial dispute over closing a train door could culminate in such a savage killing. Pall of gloom in Virar Early Wednesday morning, the Lohar family of Virar was devastated on learning about the horrifying killing of their favourite child, Mayank in a train altercation. His parents, three brothers and a sister could barely speak, with his wailing mother demanding “he must be hanged”. Consoling each other, one sister lamented how he was a quiet boy, rarely stepped out of the house without any reason and had his entire life before him that was snuffed out. Venting their ire, they asked “where was the police, why the other commuters didn’t help him” and warned that today it was their son, “next it can be anybody’s son”. The massive dragnet Barely hours after the brutal killing of Mayank Lohar, the Borivali GRP launched one of the biggest manhunts to track and apprehend the suspected killer from Panvel in Raigad district. He was later identified as one Roshan Suvarna, 30, of Mira Road, running a barcode business, informed Borivali GRP Senior Police Inspector Datta Khuperkar. “We formed seven teams with around 10 police personnel supervised by 15 officers. They scanned footage from over 400 CCTVs to trace the regular movements of the accused. The GRP stations of Borivali, Andheri, Mira Road and Nalasopara were involved in the search. We deployed tech-intel to scour his mobile and with help of our network of informers, finally caught him in Panvel,” a weary but victorious Khuperkar told ‘The Perfect Voice’. He added that after completing the legal and medical formalities, he will be produced before a Borivali Court for remand.

Reliable Teams Don’t Wait – They Own, Starts With You

Rashmi Kulkarni
Apr 20, 2025
3 min read

Your team’s reliability is not a personality trait. It’s a design decision.

A few months ago, I worked with a hospitality business in the US that ran weekend events, weddings, and overnight stays. The founder described their team as young, sharp, and always on the move.

They were all that, but they were also always on edge.

Behind the scenes, everything depended on her. Shift planning, escalations, client complaints, and even tip payouts. If she didn’t answer a Slack message, progress would be stalled. When she skipped a weekly huddle, decisions backed up. And when she took a Thursday off, Friday morning started with a mini fire drill.

She did not build a team; she built a queue – with faces.

Not because she didn’t trust her team. But because she never replaced herself in the system.

The Founder Fallback Loop

We call this the fallback loop.

The structure exists, and the SOPs exist. However, the team doesn’t own the system because the founder is still the system.

That’s the hidden execution gap inside many scaling businesses. Leaders introduce tools, hire managers, and build dashboards - but stay tightly coupled to every decision.

So teams get into the habit of waiting.

Waiting for feedback. Waiting for approvals. Waiting for the founder to pop in and "just tweak a few things."

The team isn’t unreliable. The structure isn’t weak. The fallback loop is still open.

What Reliability Actually Looks Like

Reliability isn’t about control, it is about rhythm. Rhythm is built when ownership is clear, roles are visible, and founders stop being the backup plan.

In that same hospitality business, we rebuilt the execution model:

• Shift planning moved to a shared tool

• Weekly ops check-ins were led by the floor manager, not the founder

• Escalations had defined paths - no more weekend Slack pings

• Tip payouts were automated with logic-based templates

The result was…

Decisions stopped bouncing.

Team members stopped deferring.

The founder started taking Thursdays off without triggering panic.

They didn’t just become faster, they became predictable.

Reliable Teams Don’t Need Reminders. They Need Design

Founders often say they want reliable teams. However, reliability isn’t something you hire for, it is something you design for.

That design includes:

• SOPs that clarify what "done" looks like

• Role clarity that prevents duplication

• Check-ins that happen without needing permission

• Escalation rules that don’t default to "just ask the founder"

And most importantly: a founder who doesn’t break the system they asked the team to trust.

Because the moment you jump back in to "just fix it," you’re not reinforcing reliability. You’re rewriting the rules.

Ask yourself

Reliable teams don’t wait. They move, own, and lead only when the founder steps out of the fallback loop.

If your team works well only when you’re watching, ask yourself:

• Have I given them clarity?

• Have I replaced myself in the loop?

• Have I protected the system I asked them to follow?

Because team reliability isn’t an outcome, it’s a pattern. And it always starts with you.

Next week, we begin our series: Let Go to Grow. We’ll explore what happens when founders overstay inside the system, override their own structures, and unknowingly kill the very rhythm they built.

It is not about adding more tools. It is about learning when to step back - and stay back.

(The author is Co-founder at PPS Consulting and a business operations advisor. She helps businesses across sectors and geographies improve execution through global best practices. She could be reached at rashmi@ppsconsulting.biz)

1 Comment

Chittaranjan Padave

Apr 26, 2025

The Founder Fallback Loop - Concisely summarized !! Certainly thrust has to be over Leadership Development aligned with Org's vision, so the business outcomes by the Project Team are as per expectations.