Over the last seven days, two instances of violence in Maharashtra have turned up the heat on Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis.

Yesterday, Abhishek Ghosalkar, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, was shot dead in Dahisar by a man named Mauris Noronha, who then shot himself. The shooting was live-streamed on Facebook. Just four days before, Noronha was allegedly photographed with Shinde at the chief minister’s official residence. 

And on February 2, BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shot a Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) politician named Mahesh Gaikwad in a police station, with CCTV footage capturing the entire incident. He survived and the MLA is now in custody. After his arrest, Ganpat blamed Shinde for the crime, accusing him of “giving patronage to criminals across Maharashtra”.

As of now, both cases seem connected to rivalry involving members of the two parties in power in Maharashtra. The opposition has now demanded that Shinde and Fadnavis resign. 

Incident #1

Noronha is an activist who shot to fame during the Covid pandemic, when he distributed food and essentials to the poor in north Mumbai. Known as Mauris Bhai, he received an award from then governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari for his work.

In October 2021, he announced on Facebook that he planned to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections from wards 1 and 8 in IC Colony in Mumbai. 

It was around then that he bumped heads with Shiv Sena (UBT) politician Abhishek Ghosalkar, who allegedly didn’t want Noronha to contest from the same ward as Ghosalkar’s wife Tejasvee, the sitting corporator from ward 1, as his popularity might scupper her chances. 

Noronha refused. Soon after, he was arrested on charges of rape and cheating. He spent three months in jail and reportedly blamed Ghosalkar for “fabricating” a case against him. In 2022, Ghosalkar’s wife Tejasvee filed a police complaint against Noronha for “using abusive language”.

As for the BMC elections, Noronha never contested because the elections were postponed – and still haven’t been held. But tension continued between both men.

On Wednesday, February 7, Noronha and Ghosalkar went live on Facebook where they had an amicable chat about putting their differences behind them. They also announced plans to distribute rations and saris to the needy.

On the evening of February 8, they met again at Noronha’s office in Dahisar  and went live on Facebook. Noronha said they would discuss “how we can do good for IC Colony” and that Ghosalkar would speak first. He then stepped out of the frame and Ghosalkar began speaking, saying “we are now together, we’ll do good for the people”. After speaking for a few seconds, he looked at Noronha, who was off-camera, and said “we’ll go outside”.

As he stood up, he was shot. The gun went off five times. According to the police, Noronha turned the gun on himself after shooting Ghosalkar. They were rushed to a private hospital where they were declared dead on arrival. 

An initial FIR was registered at MHB police station. The case was later transferred to the Crime Branch. 

A senior police official at MHB told Newslaundry: “We have registered two FIRs – one of murder and other of suicide. Prima facie it seems the accused shot Ghosalkar because of old rivalry which developed because the accused wanted to contest the election from the same area where the victim’s wife was corporator. But this is just prima facie, there is a lot to investigate about the entire matter. We have handed over the case to the Crime Branch which will investigate the case further.”

The police also arrested one Mahesh Parikh who had been present in the room when Ghosalkar was killed.

Incident #2

The second incident took place on February 2 in Thane.

Ganpat Gaikwad is a three-time BJP MLA from Kalyan (East). Mahesh Gaikwad is the Kalyan (East) city chief of the Eknath faction of the Shiv Sena. He’s considered to be close to the CM’s son Shrikant Shinde, and there are rumours that he was being considered as a candidate from Kalyan (East) in the assembly polls this year.

Ganpat and Mahesh were quarrelling over land in Dwari village, where Ganpat’s business partners were allegedly stopped and threatened by Mahesh’s men from carrying out construction. They both went to Hill Line police station in Ulhasnagar on February 2 to file complaints. 

CCTV footage from the police station showed Ganpat standing up and pointing a gun. He shot 10 rounds at Mahesh, who tried to run but fell. Mahesh survived and was taken to a hospital.

Ganpat was arrested but social media was soon flooded with audio clips of a phone call he allegedly made after the shooting. In the clips, he said he had “no regrets” and that “Eknath Shinde made me a criminal”.

“They assaulted my son on the premises of the police station in the presence of the police,” he said in the unverified clip. “They have forcefully occupied my land. Eknath Shinde is trying to establish the rule of criminals in the state. If Eknath Shinde is going to remain CM of Maharashtra, then Maharashtra will only see the birth of criminals. Eknath Shinde has given patronage to criminals across Maharashtra.”

It’s unclear what happened to Ganpat’s son Vaibhav. The police meanwhile booked Ganpat, Vaibhav and four BJP workers for criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder. Vaibhav and two of the workers are reportedly absconding.

‘Blot on political culture’

Yesterday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut tweeted a photo that claimed to show Noronha meeting Shinde at the CM’s official residence in Mumbai.

Raut tweeted that Shinde has also been photographed with other notorious gangsters, including Nilesh Ghaiwal and Jitendra Jangam, while his son Shrikant has been photographed with Hemant Dhabekar. The harried Shiv Sena has now expelled a party member who took Dhabekar to meet Shrikanth Shinde.

Harish Kherzakar, a Mumbai-based lawyer and political analyst, told Newslaundry that the political culture of Maharashtra “has never seen such a downfall”.

“This was not even witnessed in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” he said. “Maharashtra has seen examples of political rivals like Sharad Pawar, Balasaheb Thackeray, Gopinath Shinde, Nitin Gadkari, etc. They were rivals in politics but at a personal level, they were good friends...But a culture of personal hate in politics now thrives. Parties have been divided into factions which has increased political enmity between leaders.”

On Shinde being photographed with criminals, Kherzakar said it’s “not a good sign”. “It’s high time to control the criminalisation of politics in Maharashtra, or else the politics in our state is doomed. Incidents like these are a blot on the political culture of Maharashtra.”

Srirang Awate, a political analyst in Pune, said the fact that both incidents took place on camera “clearly indicates the failing law and order situation in the state”.

“This is the first time such things are happening in Maharashtra. Since the Shinde-Fadnavis government came into the picture, there has been a lot of internal political rivalry between them,” he said. “There are a lot of problems between them for seats and money and it’s very dangerous. A powerful leader like Devendra Fadnavis himself is the home minister but the situation is getting out of control.”

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