After four assailants shoot at him and flee, injured general manager of pvt firm gets no help from passers-by

People just gawped, and moved on

After four assailants shoot at him and flee, injured general manager of pvt firm gets no help from passers-by

Even as a bleeding Vincent Gilbert (50), general manager of a private company who was shot at in Pimpri by four assailants yesterday morning, frantically called for help, people just looked at him and moved on.

Only when a friend who was passing by saw Gilbert shouting for help on the busy road in Nehru Nagar, was he taken to hospital.

"I was injured and shouting for help. But not a single autorickshaw stopped for me, nor did the people watching from their cars come forward to take me to hospital," said Gilbert.

The assailants fled after shooting at him; Gilbert escaped with minor injuries on his left hand but was bleeding profusely.

In hospital, finally
A resident of Sant Tukaram Nagar in Pimpri, Gilbert was taken to the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital by his friend.

Gilbert, the general manager of Chetak Logistics Limited in Chakan, later lodged a complaint with the Pimpri police against the four unidentified people.

"The place where the firing took place has heavy traffic in the morning hours," said Gilbert. "I saw at least seven cars behind my car after the assailants had fled. I tried to stop some autos and cried for help to the people in the cars, but no one came to help me."

Union leader's threat
Gilbert said he had received a threat from a union leader a couple of days ago.

"Prakash Pawar, district president of the Maharashtra Mathadi Kamgar Union, had threatened me with dire consequences on Sunday after a dispute regarding hiring of labourers," said Gilbert. "Pawar had levelled allegations against us stating that we were hiring labourers not registered with the company. However the allegations proved to be baseless."

He added that Pawar had been issuing threats for some months now. "We had filed a complaint with the Chakan police in March and also written to the Labour Commissioner about threats from Pawar," Gilbert said.
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He said he did not know who the assailants were except that they had been seen with Pawar before. "The four assailants, who were seen previously with Pawar, had followed my car on their two bikes and opened fire in the air. After firing two rounds, they intercepted the car near Nehru Nagar around 9 am," he said. "Two of them broke the glass of my car windows, while two came near the driver's seat and fired a round at the window.

Then they attacked me with a chopper but I saved myself."

Police Inspector T D Gaud from the Pimpri police station said they were looking for Pawar. "We have recovered one live cartridge and one empty shell from the spot. It's of a 7.65 mm revolver and usually used in licensed weapons," Gaud said.