Man fires at building material supplier in Mohammadwadi

PUNE: An assailant opened fire at a building material supplier at Mohammadwadi around 12.10pm on Monday and fled the spot, triggering commotion in the area.
The bullet brushed the left cheek of the victim, Mayur Vijay Hande (29), police said. He was treated at a nearby private hospital and discharged.
The police have recorded his statement.
The daylight firing incident at a relatively crowded spot — an open space where suppliers offload building material for contractors and labourers of different projects — shocked people. This is the second incident of criminals opening fire on the city streets in a week after Rajesh Kanabar (64), a developer, was shot dead on October 5 in front of the SBI treasury branch near Pune district collector’s office.
The Wanowrie police said they were ascertaining the motive behind the latest attack although they had no clear leads. “Hande has so far maintained that he had no enmity with anyone of the kind that would prompt such an attack on him,” an officer said.
The police have detained two men for questioning on the suspicion that they were following Hande’s routine for the past few days. A motorcycle, which the police suspect the assailant might have used for reaching a place near the crime scene, and an autorickshaw that might have been used in conducting a recce of the spot have been seized.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone V) Namrata Patil said, “We are working on a few potential leads and examining the CCTV footage of the crime scene to ascertain the identity of the suspect.”
Senior inspector Krantikumar Patil of the Wanowrie police said, “Hande runs a business of supplying construction material to builders across Pune from an establishment in Handewadi. He has three tractors for transporting building material like bricks, sand and steel to the open plot near Inamdar ground in Mohammadwadi.”
He said, “On Monday, Hande himself drove a tractor-trolley loaded with sand and bricks to Mohammadwadi for offloading the material. He parked his tractor on the open plot and got down from the vehicle. He was speaking on his cell phone when a man, face covered with a mask, came from the front and fired at him from a pistol. Hande took an evasive action on seeing the man firing at him. The bullet brushed his left cheek as he ducked. The assailant simply walked away from the spot after firing.”
Two eyewitnesses have narrated the sequence of events, including the direction in which the assailant went walking, to the police investigators. “We have found an empty cartridge at the site. It suggested that the firearm used could be a country-made pistol. We suspect the assailant was following Hande for the past three days and Hande had noticed him once,” Patil said.