Civic activist’s house attacked

The Marine Drive police are looking for two unidentified men who walked up to civic activist Nayana Kathpalia’s home in Churchgate on Friday morning and fired one round with their country-made guns.

According to police,the assailants walked up the stairs to the activist’s first-floor apartment in Swastik Court building around 6.45 am and rang the doorbell. “They opened fire once the door opened and fled immediately,” senior police inspector Zunjarrao Maruti Gharal said. The door was opened by a domestic help who escaped unhurt. The bullet hit the front door. “Kathpalia is being questioned if there was any threat she had received in any connection,though there seems to be none,” Gharal said.

“I am shocked at the incident as there has been no recent occurrance,which would result in some armed men attacking my house,” Kathpalia said. Last year,she had invited the wrath of hawkers when the Oval Trust,of which she is a member,removed 100 stalls and cleared a 2000-square yard space outside Cross Maidan for beautification. “I am not sure if that’s the reason. The stalls were removed in September. There has been no dialogue or threat from them,” she said.

Kathpalia has been a part of the Oval Cooperage Residents Association since 1995 and the founding member of CITISPACE from 1998,which championed the cause of saving open spaces in the city.