Rabale police said the assailants came to the complex, where Sawant was standing, on a Yamaha bike. ``One of them walked up to Pappu and fired three rounds in his head,'' said an eyewitness.

Inspector Dattatraya Wayal said the disruption of power supply in the area for nearly two hours after the killing helped the assailants to escape.

Sawant was rushed to the J K Singhania Hospital in Thane, but was declared dead before admission. A post-mortem performed this morning at Thane Civil Hospital revealed that one bullet had gone right through his temple, while two were lodged in his brain.

Incidentally, Sawant had on Wednesday gone to visit Loksatta reporter Vikas Mahadik's father Sadashivrao at Kamgar Hospital, Thane, where the latter is undergoing treatment for cancer.Vikas said: ``Pappu offered his blood when he came to know my father needed blood.''

Navi Mumbai police commissioner, Sudhakar Ambedkar, ruled out the possibility that the killing may have been a fallout of political rivalry. He also said there was no involvement of the underworld in the killing. According to Ambedkar, ``The killing seems more a result of personal enmity or some financial dispute, which must have had its origins in Sawant's village.''

Police are yet to question Sawant's family members. His parents, who live in Vaibhavwadi, Kolhapur, have still not reached Navi Mumbai. His brother, who lived with Sawant, was too shattered to answer police queries, Ambedkar said.

Sawant had contested the civic polls against Ganesh Naik's chosen candidate, Ashok Pohekar, with the backing of Thane-based Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe. This was the time when differences had first cropped up between Naik and the Sena chief over stone quarries.

Meanwhile, the entire township of Airoli observed a bandh today toprotest Sawant's killing. Many NMMT bus services, especially those passing through Sector V, were either curtailed or cancelled owing to the bandh. Hundreds of students from Shriram Polytechnic, NYSS, Datta Meghe College of Engineering and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Engineering were stuck as there were no buses available.