Attacks on businessmen

Two Parsi businessmen were shot at in different parts of Bombay in the months of August and October 2004. Forty-year-old Viraf Vajifdar, a resident of Lalbaug who owned a powder coating factory at Rabale in New Bombay had reportedly gone to Manku Industries at Dhokali Road, Kolshet on August 31 to collect some dues. As he walked out of the gates of Manku Industries towards his black Indica, four unidentified assailants fired two shots, killing him instantly, according to a news item in The Indian Express of September 1, 2004. Using the decea­sed’s car, the assailants reportedly fled from the scene. Vajifdar’s body was later taken to the Thane Civil Hospital and the crime branch officials said the bullets were fired from an imported revolver, mentions the Express report.

Forty-two-year-old Firdaus Vakil, a dealer of Bharat Gas, was shot at in his shop on Mori Road, Mahim. According to a report in The Times of India of October 30, four men walked into his shop the preceding morning and threatened his women employees with a revolver. "Apné aap ko shyana samjhta hai kya (do you think you are smart)?” asked the assailants, pointing the revol­ver at Vakil. When Vakil asked them to leave the shop, an assailant fired at him, the bullet piercing the businessman’s shoulder. The men then escaped in a jeep. The neighboring shop owners called in the police and rushed Vakil to Hinduja Hospital. His 13-year-old daughter who was in the shop at that time was reportedly in a state of shock.

According to the Times write-up, property dispute is be­lieved to be the motive behind the attack for Vakil, a resident of Mahim, had been receiving threats for the last few weeks but had not reported the matter to the police. Assistant commissioner of police B. B. Yadav ruled out the involvement of the underworld and told the Times, "It is not an extortion threat and we are probing the property dispute angle.”