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Delhi: Former staffer among suspects in killing owner of chain of gyms
Senior officers said Mahendra Agarwal had fired the employee and also got a case of kidnapping and extortion registered against him, they said.
Twelve days after Mahendra Agarwal, 40, owner of a chain of gyms, was shot dead at the premises of one of his fitness centres in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar, the police said they have identified the two suspects, including his former employee, and were conducting raids in different parts of Uttarakhand to nab them.
Apart from the east district police, teams of special cell and crime branch are also camping in the hill state for the suspects, whose last locations were in Haridwar and Mussoorie. The police have withheld the names of the suspects as they are yet to be arrested and their role in the murder has to be established through interrogation.
Senior officers associated with the probe said they came to know that Agarwal had a dispute with a former employee. Agarwal had fired him and also got a case of kidnapping and extortion registered against him, they said.
“During the investigation of the murder case, we questioned the manager of the gym who is one of the eyewitnesses. The manager told us that the former employee had been demanding his pending salary. Agarwal believed that the employee had misappropriated around ₹5 lakh and wanted him to pay that amount first,” said the officer.
In 2017, the former employee had come to Agarwal’s office with some of his associates, allegedly created a ruckus and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not clear his pending salary, the investigator said.
Agarwal registered a case of kidnapping and extortion against the staffer, and he was arrested, another police officer said.
“The ex-employee remained in jail for some weeks and was later released on bail. It is possible that the man killed Agarwal to settle scores,” the second officer added.
The officers said that although the dispute appears to be the prime reason behind Agarwal’s murder, what exactly triggered the former employee to kill him almost after five years is a matter of probe. “This can be clarified only when the prime suspect is arrested. The entire sequence of events of December 30 leading to Agarwal’s murder will be established, when we nab the suspects,” the first officer said.
According to the police, the gym in Preet Vihar is located in the basement of a building on Vikas Marg, and the office is on the first floor of the same building. Agarwal was in his office on the first floor when at least two men with muffled faces barged into his room around 7.30pm on December 30, shot him and fled. Agarwal was hit in his head and he was declared brought dead at a nearby hospital. While fleeing the premises, the attackers took away the digital video recorder (DVR) of the CCTV camera installed in the office.
Investigators said that the attackers looked familiar to the premises of the gym and office as they came at a time when only few employees were present. Over 30 employees worked at the gym and most of them had left after work at the time of the firing and murder. As the manager had worked with the former employee, he could identify him despite his face being covered. After the manager identified the former employee, a team was sent to his homes in Delhi and Ghaziabad, but he was found missing. The second suspect was also identified and he too was found missing from his residence, the investigators said.
“Through CCTV cameras, the routes taken by the suspects were identified and it was learnt that they had arrived in a car belonging to their friend. We interrogated the friend, who claimed that he was not aware of the murder plan and that the duo had only asked him to drop them in Preet Vihar area. Further scanning of CCTV cameras revealed that the suspects had gone towards Uttarakhand in another vehicle,” said an investigator, requesting anonymity.
HT has withheld the names of the suspects as they are yet to be arrested and their role in the murder has to be established through interrogation by police.
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