Businessman’s body found hanging from tree, nearly 40 km from his shop

The family had filed a missing complaint at the Anand Vihar police station late Tuesday night. A case of murder has been registered and the police are probing the case from all possible angles.

A day after he went missing from outside his grocery store in east Delhi’s Karkardooma, a 37-year-old trader was found hanging from a tree with his hands tied behind in outer Delhi’s Baprola Vihar on Wednesday, police said.

The police said the family reported the matter late and did not suspect any foul play. (HT File Photo)

The man, Gaurav Bansal, lived with his family in a residential apartment in Patparganj. His family suspects he was abducted from outside his shop by unidentified persons, who murdered him and hanged his body near a lake in Baprola Vihar near Ranhola , 40 kilometres from Karkardooma.

The family had filed a missing complaint at the Anand Vihar police station late Tuesday night. A case of murder has been registered and the police are probing the case from all possible angles.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer) A Koan said the body was hanging from a rope near the banks of a lake around 8.30 am Wednesday and his hands were tied from behind. “We are probing the murder case,” Koan said.

“The employees told us Bansal left the shop around 2.30 pm, asking them to go out for their lunch. We got worried and approached the police when his wife, Shanu, got a call from an unknown person, who claimed to be calling from Pune. The man asked about my brother-in-law and abruptly disconnected the call when Shanu asked who he was,” said Kohli.

According to Kohli, they called back on that phone and the person who answered the call said he lived in Delhi’s Mohan Garden, before disconnecting the call. “The phone is switched off since then and we suspect he knows something about my brother-in-law’s murder,” he added.

Bansal’s family alleged that despite filing a missing complaint and giving information about activities on his social media profile, the police made no efforts to find him.

“Around 2.30 am on Wednesday, there was some activity on my brother-in-law’s (Bansal) Facebook profile and it showed his location in Mandi House area. We alerted the police but they did not take any action, saying it would take at least a fortnight to get details regarding investigation from the social networking site,” said Kohli.

The police said the family reported the matter late and did not suspect any foul play. Bansal’s wife in her complaint mentioned that he had suffered losses in business and had undergone treatment for depression, a senior police officer from Shahdara district said, requesting anonymity.

The officer quoting his wife said he had taken a personal loan of R6 lakh and had lost around R 3.50 lakh after somebody stole his wallet and illegally used his credit card.

“Our Anand Vihar personnel were already looking for Bansal when the Ranhola police informed them about his body,” the officer said.