Somraj Devrasi, a site engineer and Yogesh Kude, a site supervisor worked on a construction project being developed by Sudhakar Shetty, owner of the infamous Deepa Bar in Vile Parle that has been closed for the past two years. Kude was declared dead on arrival at a hospital in Andheri, while Devrasi, the site engineer, succumbed to injuries a few hours later.
Police suspect that they assailants were looking for Shetty, who was expected to be at the site on Monday morning.
The gunmen claimed to be courier boys and entered directly to the cabin where Devrasi and Kude were working. The assailants then shot a round each at the two men at point-blank range, threw an envelope near the spot and fled.
The Pujari gang is known to extort money by threatening people and this is the first time the Pujari shooters have killed someone. Police suspect that the assailants panicked and shot dead the two men.
This is not the first controversy involving Shetty. He has been interrogated for being linked to the underworld and his involvement in match fixing. However, he has always denied the links.
Shetty has also been targetted by gunmen earlier inside his bar, but escaped. After a crackdown on bars in Mumbai, Shetty converted his bar in a yoga ashram, as he is an ardent follower of Baba Ramdev.