Gurugram: Man shot dead by cousin over 14-year-old business dispute, two held

The deceased was Sanjay Sharma, a building material contractor who also ran canteens on contract for multiple colleges in the city, said police.

Two men were arrested for the alleged murder of a 55-year-old man who was shot dead on January 6 on Sector 37D road, said police on Tuesday.

According to police, Sanjay was Gurudutt’s maternal aunt’s son and Sanjay’s death was the fallout of a 14-year-old business dispute between the duo.

The deceased was Sanjay Sharma, a building material contractor who also ran canteens on contract for multiple colleges in the city, said police, adding that the accused were identified as Gurudutt Sharma alias Baleshwar Sharma, 56, from Dehkora in Rohtak and his associate Anil Kumar, 48, of Kandora in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. They knew each other for the last 10 years.

According to police, Sanjay was Gurudutt’s maternal aunt’s son and Sanjay’s death was the fallout of a 14-year-old business dispute between the duo.

Police said that Gurudutt had rammed Sanjay’s car amid poor visibility due to fog between 7am and 7.30am on January 6. As soon as Sanjay got out to check, Gurudutt shot him from behind in the right side of his head from a point-blank range resulting in his instant death. After almost an hour, a commuter spotted Sanjay lying in a pool of blood and alerted police about a possible road accident.

Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said that Sanjay and Gurudutt jointly owned a stone crusher business in Haryana in 2011 which got shut down within a year due their internal dispute.

“The duo had arguments multiple times in the past over the business. Gurudutt held a grudge against Sanjay and decided to murder him for revenge. He paid ₹10 lakh to Anil a month back for tracing Sanjay’s movements for almost two weeks before the murder,” said Turan.

A police officer privy to the investigation, said that Gurudutt had watched online videos for planning the murder and evading the police.

“He avoided using any phone while reaching the spot from Dehradun and fled assuming that he would not be caught. However, after scanning CCTV footagesand after questioning Sanjay’s family, police learned about their dispute,” said the officer.

Crime branch officials said Gurudutt was arrested from Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Saturday where he ran a café while Anil was arrested from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on Monday where he worked as a passenger bus driver.

Gurudutt was presently on four-day police remand for detailed interrogation to recover murder weapon and to also ascertain if more suspects are involved in the murder, said police.