Gurugram exec murder: Probe looks into black market arms

Gurugram: Investigators probing the murder of a Singapore-based executive Paramjith Dhankhar, who was shot dead, allegedly by his neighbour Mohan Sharma in Faridabad’s Sector-21C on November 6, said they have recovered at least 299 empty cartridges fired from the two licensed pistols owned by Sharma, raising suspicions of his links with arms smugglers

Gurugram: Investigators probing the murder of a Singapore-based executive Paramjith Dhankhar, who was shot dead, allegedly by his neighbour Mohan Sharma in Faridabad’s Sector-21C on November 6, said they have recovered at least 299 empty cartridges fired from the two licensed pistols owned by Sharma, raising suspicions of his links with arms smugglers.

Gurugram exec murder: Probe looks into black market arms

Investigators said that under no circumstances could he have legally purchased these cartridges from gun-houses, as only 30 to 50 are issued annually to civilians possessing a general arms licence. In contrast, Sharma virtually had at least 80 live rounds with him at the time of the murder, besides the empty ones recovered from his home during the search.

“One has to mandatorily deposit the spent cartridges at the gun house to get issued equal amount of new ones after paying the price. Sharma was probably procuring the ammunitions from arms smugglers or from black market,” a senior officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

Besides, officers said that they recovered 59 live cartridges from a bag in Sharma’s house, along with two pistols—one with a loaded magazine—and another pistol, used in the murder, along with six live cartridges from Samana in Patiala of Punjab.

A crime branch official, asking not to be named, said Sharma told them he amassed these empty cartridges in the past several months from celebratory firing. “He told us doing celebratory firing in jungle but it seems unreal. We are verifying reports that he frequently used to do celebratory firing from his licenced pistols while partying at his office on a farmhouse, adjacent to the building in which he lived,” the official said.

Yashpal Yadav, Faridabad police public relations officer, said they will procure a detailed report from the arms magistrate and check gun house records to ascertain records of Sharma’s purchases. “His arms licence was issued in December 2023. Since then, number of ammunition issued to him officially will be matched. Afterwards, decision will be taken if a separate case is to be registered against him,” he said.

Yadav said Sharma’s three-day police remand ended on Friday, after which he was produced before the court and sent to jail.