Sangoi, who was on the wooden swing in his balcony waiting for dawn to break at 4.30 am, had been alterted by his daughter Nehal (18) that a man was tampering with their car parked below their building on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg at Matunga. At the window studying for her college examination when she spied the suspicious silhouette, Nehal called out to her father, who promptly ran downstairs from their first floor apartment at Perne Kutir.

Nehal followed closely but by the time she reached the car, her father had already been stabbed nine times and was bathed in blood. The fury of the attack was so severe that a green NE 118 which stood 10 feet from the Sangois' Maruti Zen was also splattered in blood. Nehal's younger sisterTwinkle (14), who had also rushed downstairs, stood transfixed by the sight of her father gasping for breath. Sangoi, who is the sixth victim of car theft in Matunga in a week -- but the only one attacked -- was rushed to hospital but was declared dead before admission. A panchnama taken by the Matunga police revealed that Sangoi, a garment manufacturer at Dadar, had been stabbed in the throat, heart, cheek and hand.

Preliminary investigations reveal that the unidentified and absconding thief had already dismantled the car stereo when Nehal had spotted him. Matunga police are on the lookout for the assailant, who disappeared down one of the 20 lanes in this upper middle class neighbourhood.

But for the Sangois, the worst is not over yet. Sangoi's wife and father Kuvarji are away in their native Bhuj in Kutch district of Gujarat to celebrate the latter's 80th birthday. They are yet to return, a relative of the Sangois say.

Senior Inspector of the Matunga police station, Netaji Tambvekar, toldExpress Newsline that they are still clueless as the only witness to the murder, Nehal, is still in shock. Today's murder is the sequel to several recent car thefts at Matunga; five thieves have been arrested this week itself, police say.