Property Dispute Sparks Shooting: Real Estate Agent Targeted in Kandivali

The real estate agent who was shot at in Kandivali and the accused in the case were involved in a dispute over a property transaction which led to the crime, police said. The four accused in the case, including the three shooters, were on Saturday produced before a court in Mumbai, which remanded them in police custody till November 27.

According to police, during interrogation, they learned that the alleged mastermind of the firing, Rajesh Chauhan alias Daya, and the victim, Freddy D’Lima, had a dispute over the payment of Rs 25 lakh for a property transaction.

The three men who allegedly shot at D’Lima were identified as Subhash Mohite (44), a Virar resident, Mangesh Chaudhari (40), a Pune resident, and Roshan Singh alias Krishna (25), a Thane resident. The four persons were arrested by the Mumbai crime branch from a forest in Pune where they were holed up, on Friday.

The Charkop police had arrested one more person, Munna Mayuddin Shaikh alias Guddu, on Thursday, who allegedly helped the accused, including the three shooters, escape from Mumbai to Pune. According to police, in 2019, Guddu was arrested by the crime branch after invoking MCOCA against him in a criminal case. A year ago, he was out on bail.

Rajesh Chauhan also had previous cases and was arrested over the murder of Bunty Pradhan, the proprietor of Dolphin Properties in April 2014 in Mira Road. Police are trying to get more details about him, said a crime branch official.

“It took the crime branch team more than a day to arrest all the four accused, including the shooters in Pune. The investigation is going on, and more clarity will come soon,” the official added.

D’Lima was allegedly shot at by the three shooters around 2 pm on November 19 when he was leaving a school in Ganesh Nagar after meeting someone. One bullet hit his abdomen, and another hit his chest, the police said. The shooters had covered their faces with masks, police said.

D’Lima, despite sustaining bullet injuries, drove to Oscar Hospital, where both the bullets lodged in his body were removed. Initially, the case was being probed by Charkop police but was transferred to the crime branch unit 11.