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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)...

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.

Shiv Sena (UBT) rattled in Dahisar

Tejasvee, widow of slain corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar joins BJP

Mumbai: In a severe poll-eve jolt to the Shiv Sena (UBT), its former BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporator Tejasvee A. Ghosalkar abruptly quit to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

 

Tejasvee is the widow of the popular former corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar who was shot dead on Feb. 8, 2024, during a Facebook Live interaction with his local constituents, sending shockwaves in political circles.

 

Incidentally, Tejasvee’s father-in-law is the SS (UBT) strongman, ex-MLA Vinod Ghosalkar, who also served as Chairman of Mumbai Building Repairs & Reconstruction Board. A municipal corporator from 2017-2022, Tejasvee’s switchover is likely to enhance the BJP’s prospects in the Dahisar west area where the Ghosalkars and the SS (UBT) held sway for several decades.

 

The development comes as a massive smash to the SS (UBT) north Mumbai unit which was hoping to encash on the ‘sympathy wave’ generated after Abhishek Ghosalkar’s killing by a local goon Mauris Noronha, who committed suicide minutes later in the IC Colony area of Borival west.

 

Tejasvee, who visited and offered prayers at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi after joining the BJP, has justified her move on grounds that the decades of work by the Ghosalkar family at the grassroots level (Ward No. 1) is not hampered.

 

Earlier, she and her supporters were welcomed to the party fold by Mumbai BJP President Ameet Satam when she acknowledged that while the SS (UBT) gave her a political identity, she “was very keen to work with the BJP for the development of her region”.

 

“I always wanted to strive towards development… I am ready to accept any responsibility given by the party. I am confident that under the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, we shall continue to strengthen the work at the ground level,” said Tejasvee, who was peeved after the SS (UBT) denied her a ticket in the Nov. 2024 Assembly elections.

 

Earlier, she had targeted the ruling MahaYuti for the tardy pace of the investigations into her husband’s killing and expressed disappointment at the lack of progress even by the CBI which was handed over the case in Sep. 2024.

 

The young, educated, and outgoing couple was a favourite among the cosmopolitan population of Dahisar west as the (undivided) Shiv Sena considered it as one of its key strongholds for many decades.

 

The Ghosalkars were known to be very close to the Thackeray clan since the days of the late (undivided) Shiv Sena founder-patriarch, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

 

BJP ‘lure’ via co-op. bank post 

After she was rebuffed for a ticket in the Nov. 2024 Assembly elections, in favour of her father-in-law Vinod Ghosalkar (who lost), speculation was rife on Tejasvee A. Ghosalkar’s political moves but she clarified her position to the SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, ex-CM.

 

In June 2025, political motormouths went into hyper-buzz after she was appointed a Director of the BJP-dominated Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank, raising eyebrows even in the SS (UBT).

 

She quickly went to meet the SS (UBT) chief and made it clear that “Uddhav Thackeray is the head of our family”, but she was fulfilling the dreams of her late husband by taking her maiden plunge into the cooperative sector through MDCCB.

 


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