Four people, accused in the killing a property dealer in Lucknow, were arrested on Saturday.
The victim, Dharmendra Pal, 32, was found severely injured in the rear seat of his car parked outside his office under Kakori police station limit. He later succumbed to his injuries on February 14.
Pal’s relatives had lodged an FIR under IPC section 302 (murder), naming some people and claimed murder was over a property dispute.
“A pistol was also found from Pal’s vehicle. Prima facia it looked to be a case of a suicide. However, the postmortem revealed that the bullet inside the victim’s head was different from the weapon which was recovered from the front seat,” said Lucknow commissioner of police (CP), SB Shiradkar at a press conference on Saturday.
“The prime accused have been identified as Neeraj Yadav, 30, a close aide of Dharmendra. Others who have been arrested include Shivam Yadav, 20, Himanshu Yadav, 23, and Shrawan Yadav, 28, all Lucknow residents who were nabbed by police with the help of electronic surveillance and tracing of call details,” he said.
“Dharmendra Pal previously worked as a broker in the firm of the prime accused, Neeraj Yadav alias Pujari who was also a property dealer. However, Dharmendra started his own business without informing Neeraj and started expanding it. Despite Neeraj’s repeated requests, Dharmendra did not listen and even opened his new office. As an advocate, Dharmendra used to convince his customers and started making money. This affected Neeraj’s business,” the Lucknow police said in a press note that was issued later.
{{/usCountry}}“Dharmendra Pal previously worked as a broker in the firm of the prime accused, Neeraj Yadav alias Pujari who was also a property dealer. However, Dharmendra started his own business without informing Neeraj and started expanding it. Despite Neeraj’s repeated requests, Dharmendra did not listen and even opened his new office. As an advocate, Dharmendra used to convince his customers and started making money. This affected Neeraj’s business,” the Lucknow police said in a press note that was issued later.
{{/usCountry}}“Six months prior to the incident, Dharmendra and Neeraj Yadav had two disagreements over Dharmandra purchasing plots near Neeraj Yadav’s plots, to affect his business. This made Neeraj furious and he decided to eliminate him from his way,” the police said.
“Neeraj told his aides Shivam Yadav and Himanshu Yadav to kill Dharmendra and asked Shrawan to help them escape. On February 14, the three went to meet Dharmendra when he was sitting in his car outside his office and shot him with a pistol after an argument. They kept the other pistol to make the killing appear like a suicide and fled,” police added.