Bhiwandi murder: Eyewitness saw cousin stab victim with sword

Corporator Manoj MhatreThe police have zeroed in on the main accused behind the brutal murder of threetime Bhiwandi corporator Manoj Anant Mhatre his cousin Prashant Investigation into the case revealed that the brothers had a personal and political rivalryVideoBhiwandi Congress leader brutally murdered suspect identifiedThe Narpoli police have registered a case against BJP member Prashant and are probing CCTV footage of the incident that shows Manoj being brutally and repeatedly attacked with a weaponCousin Prashant MhatreManoj was a Congress corporator from the BhiwandiNizampur Municipal Corporation BNMC and was also the leader of houseComplainant Pradeep Mhatre Manojs driver and eyewitness in the case told the police that Manoj had a rivalry with Prashant for the past few yearsAlso ReadCongress corporator shot dead in Bhiwandi by masked assailantsSince 2012Before the 2012 BNMC elections Prashant had made a futile attempt at demanding a ticket for the ward Manoj had already won two terms inPradeep also said that after the election Prashant had burnt Manojs vehicles more than three times in Ansarbaug Also in October 2013 Prashant tried to kill Manoj along with his assailants at the office of a local corporator Later small disputes were common between them Prashant and Manoj were both from Kalvar village in Bhiwandi But after this dispute Manoj stopped coming to the village said a police officerHours before his murder Manoj met local politicians Madhukar Jagtap Uma Shankar aka Mulayam Yadav and a senior police official at Vatika Hotel on MumbaiNashik highway Prashant had been pestering Yadav to come meet him All of them went to Narpoli police station to register a noncognisable complaint against PrashantSeen holding a swordLater Pradeep picked up Manoj in his Innova and they headed for his office after dropping the others off They left for home around 830pm He was parking the car when he heard a loud noise When he turned he saw Charanjiv alias Motu Mhatre holding a 12bore gun in his hand and firing at Manoj He then saw Mittun Mohan Mhatre and Mahesh Mhatre holding a big sword and assaulting Manoj while Prashant too was assaulting Manoj with a small sword said a police officerPradeep said Prashant was at the spot at the time He has identified all persons We have formed four teams while the crime branch is also conducting a parallel investigation said Manoj Patil deputy commissioner of police BhiwandiWe also went to Prashants residence in Kalvar village but we found his house shut He is missing along with his family members We suspect that Manoj was hit with a single bullet from behind and was stabbed about 20 times We have sent his body to the JJ Hospital for a postmortem report added Patil