The assailants then took the keys from his pocket to steal money from a drawer in the room. They also opened the safe on the first floor of the bar and decamped with cash worth around Rs 2 lakh. The Santacruz police have filed a case of violence and theft.

“Uday had been working at Sangeet Bar for around two and a half years. His family is not in Mumbai so he used to stay at the bar. The bar is owned by one Hannu Shetty and we have to take his statement. On the night of the incident, after closing the bar at 1:30 am, he went to sleep in his room on the ground floor. The rest of the staff slept in a hall on the first floor,” said Senior Police Inspector D Gaekwad of Santacruz police station. “The murder took place between 4:30 am and 10 am. It seems that the accused knew that Shetty had the keys and where the money was kept,” he said.

Gaekwad added, “The motive seems to be robbery but we are conducting further investigation. We have the other staff members who were sleeping upstairs. There are around eight of them. Though none of them slept in the same room.”