Two persons were killed in separate incidents in the last 24 hours.The first incident took place at Ramson Industrial Estate at Kandivali (E) at around 11.30 pm yesterday. Chaturan Gupta (42) was on night duty when some unidentified attackers strangled him to death presumably with a wire. Police believe robbery could be the motive.

In the second incident, a 19-year-old boy was killed by three men under the jurisdiction of Matunga police station this afternoon. The incident took place in front of Jayant Traders on Natalal Parekh Marg at around noon, when Addul Sheikh and three associates attacked Raja Narayan with belts and beat him up.

Narayan was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Police believe the killing was a fallout of previous enmity.

Plywood dealer shot at, robbed

A 29-year-old plywood dealer, Sunil Parmanand Gulab, was shot by two unidentified persons and robbed of Rs 7000 at Ambernath on Sunday evening.

Gulab was closingshop on Sunday when the duo fired at him and escaped after grabbing the Rs 7000 in cash.

He received a bullet injury in his waist, and was rushed to the nearby Chandan Hospital. He is said to be out of danger. The assailants are still absconding.

EC to use Davandi

Davandi, an ancient communication method practised in rural Maharashtra for ages, would be used by the Election Commission officials to create awareness in villages about the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls being held simultaneously in the state after a gap of over three decades.

The EC officials, who are using the latest communication techniques like e-mail to contact district collectors, have asked them to resort to the traditional Davandi too to make announcements regarding the polls to be held in two phases on September 5 and 11, according to state deputy electoral officer D B Dalvi.

Davandi is the popular village communication involving beating of drums and even metal utensils to convey a piece of news to the rural folk.