Mauris Noronha, the man who shot dead the son of a Shiv Sena (UBT) during a Facebook live session, had been planning his ‘revenge’ for some time. Abhishek Ghosalkar, the son of the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, could not have possibly suspected Noronha’s plan as he was led to believe the meeting with Noronha was to mend bridges between them.
Mauris ‘Bhai’, as Noronha was known on social media, was a poker player who received praise for helping the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he became popular due to his philanthropy work, he also became inclined towards politics, which led him to decide on contesting the corporator election.
But there was a problem. The son of the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader didn’t want Noronha to contest, and objected to his candidacy publicly.
Then, a woman filed a case alleging Noronha had raped her. He was jailed for five months in this case. He suspected Ghosalkar to be the architect of the rape allegation to derail his corporator plan.
Eventually, Noronha made the plan to kill Ghosalkar by first winning his trust. Noronha made elaborate plans to send a message that he was no longer interested in the corporator election. This would have made Ghosalkar put down his guard.
On the day of the shooting, Noronha had invited Ghosalkar to a Facebook live session under the pretext of extending an olive branch and to tell the public both had become friends.
Noronha put up banners of Ghosalkar to pretend he supported the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader’s son over his own candidacy.
The outcome of Noronha’s planning is that Ghosalkar agreed to meet him for the Facebook live session. In the video, both are talking in a friendly way, until Noronha gets up and shoots Ghosalkar. After shooting his rival, Noronha ran to the mezzanine floor at his office and shot himself in the head.
Reports said Noronha first tried to shoot himself in the room where he hosted the Facebook live session. But the handgun didn’t work. Within seconds, he loaded another bullet in the handgun and shot himself.
Noronha used the gun of his bodyguard, Amarendra Mishra. The bodyguard’s wife told the police that Noronha, while hiring her husband, asked him to keep his gun in the office. Mr Mishra has been arrested under the Arms Act, which deals with giving a gun to someone without checking if the person is allowed to have the gun.
Noronha fired six rounds, five of which hit Ghosalkar.
