Illustration for representational purpose.

NAVI MUMBAI: A 30-year-old man suffered serious injuries on Monday after an unidentified attacker slashed his throat with a knife inside the toilet of Vashi JMFC court at CBD-Belapur.

Narendra Patel, the injured person, went to the court for hearing of a cheating case.

The incident occurred when Narendra went to the toilet on the fifth floor of the court building. The attacker entered the toilet and slashed Patel's throat and fled. Hearing Patel's cries, the police entered the toilet and rushed him to Appollo Hospital in CBD.

A high court lawyer and activist, Vinod Gangwal, who was present at in the court premises, told TOI, "This is an alarming situation. An unidentified attacker managed to bring a knife inside the court premises at Belapur. This means that the security at the entry points needs to be tightened."

"Many of the lawyers and other visitors could hear the cries of the victim as he came out of the toilet, profusely bleeding. He was then rushed to a nearby hospital. Police should now establish who all are behind this crime," Gangwal added.

Police recovered the knife used in the crime from the third floor of the building where the attacker had thrown it before fleeing.

Police inspector (crime) Shyam Shinde of CBD police station said, "Narendra Patel's condition is stable and he is out of danger as told by the doctors at Appollo Hospital. As the attacker has escaped, we have registered a case of attempt to murder under Section 307 of the IPC against the unidentified knife attacker."

Senior inspector Raju Sonawane said, "Patel had lodged a complaint with the EOW Unit-2 after being cheated by two real estate agents Prabhakar Mhatre (45) and Lavesh Jadhav (35) of Rs 1.45 crore in Cidco plot deal. The accused agents are in jail after we arrested them in November 2017. Prior to that, Mhatre had gone to Patel's office and had threatened to kill him for registering an FIR against him and his aides. Hence, Patel had submitted the footage of the CCTV cameras at his office in which Mhatre is seen threatening him. Hence, it is suspected that Mhatre, despite being behind the bars, might have hired a contract killer to eliminate Patel."

