‘Received death threats after father’s murder’

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A day after builder Sunilkumar Nandpal Lohiya (50) was shot dead outside his office in Navi Mumbai, his 24-year-old son Sandeep alleged that he received death threats on his cellphone. He said that his father was “silenced” for trying to expose the nexus between the police, builder lobby, officials of CIDCO and Municipal Corporation in Navi Mumbai.
“I do not trust the police and I fear for the safety of my family. All of them have grabbed a few flats in Navi Mumbai by allowing many illegal constructions to garnish over the years. My dad was an RTI activist who was trying to expose this nexus. Over the last six months, he had written over 30 letters to different police stations including the commissioner’s office asking for police security, but to no avail,” said Sandeep.
He said that the group comprising — builder Suresh Bijlani, architect Anurag Garg, broker S.P. Agarwal and trader Sumit Bachewar — is jointly responsible for murdering his father.
“However, they have a big clout. We had also approached the Bombay high court on the FSI scam in which the four were involved and the matter was to come up on Monday. But before that, they shot my father,” said Sandeep, who was assisting his father.
“The truth will come out only if investigations are handed over to the CBI. They have arrested Emmanuel Amolik for conspiring and hiring the two shooters, who killed my father. Amolik was Bijlani’s bodyguard for over a decade. What more evidence to they need?” he added. On the other hand, Navi Mumbai’s police commissioner, A. K. Sharma said, “Mr Lohiya never asked for any police cover.
Let Sandeep prove it.
We have arrested the two shooters and the mastermind Amolik. We are questioning Amolik to find out the motive.
We know he had a personal enmity with Lohiya.”
When asked whether Lohiya had a criminal background, Mr Sharma said, “Yes he was booked in cheating and forgery cases. Also, one of the criminal cases has been registered on the instructions from a magistrate.