At around 5.45 pm, Shetty left his hotel near the Science Centre and was walking along Dr E Moses Road on his way home, when he was trailed by two persons. The two accosted him when he was on the divider and pumped three bullets into him before escaping from the scene of crime in a waiting taxi.A passerby informed a police patrol van stationed in the vicinity that a man was lying in a pool of blood near Nehru Science Centre, and N M Joshi Marg police immediately rushed a profusely bleeding Shetty to KEM Hospital. But he was declared dead before admission.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the assailants fired three bullets at Shetty from close range. Shetty had been receiving threats for the last few weeks, police said.

Sources said police have gotsome cellphone and pager numbers, which could help them find the killers.

The other two hoteliers to have been killed in the last one month were Devi Prasad Hegde, who was shot near Mahakali Caves, and Ajay Shetty, who was targetted along the Andheri-Kurla Road.

Ramesh Shetty is also the fifth South Indian hotelier to have been targetted by the underworld in the last one month, after Shiv Sena's Dombivli vibhag pramukh Mallesh Shetty and Dr Deepak Shetty of Kalyan. Sources in the hotel industry said several hoteliers have been threatened in the last few weeks. Most of the cases haven't been reported to the police due to fear, sources added.