What began as a suspicion then grew into a combination of full-blown hate and anger. Fifty-four-year-old Chetan Gala chased and stabbed five people in the Parvati Mansion, a rundown chawl in a congested lane on Lamington Road in Mumbai, on Friday evening. He believed that his neighbours were responsible for his family moving away from the house they shared together, said the police.
Due to constant domestic fights, his family had moved away, leaving the man in a mentally unstable state since then. According to the police, on Friday afternoon he saw the neighbours who lived in the building in different flats. After a bout of shouting at them, he rushed into his house and came back armed with a kitchen knife and attacked his neighbours. Two of them, Jayendra and Neela Mistry, succumbed to their injuries at the hospital during treatment.
The chawl, located close to a Mumbai Metro site, overlooks the main road. As Gala went around stabbing people, passers-by gathered and shot videos of the incident. As the man continued to stab and wound his neighbours, a loud commotion ensued and someone called the police. Personnel from the D B Marg Police Station rushed to the place and disarmed the man who was standing with the knife in his hand. According to the police, Gala told them that his neighbours had instigated his family to leave him and go away. The police have not been able to establish the time when his family left him as Gala kept changing his version of his domestic problems.
The accused has been arrested and an offence under IPC 302 (murder) has been registered against him, said the police.
