75-year-old jeweller murdered in his shop at Modinagar, incident captured live in CCTV

The CCTV footage showed that the accused threw chili powder at the counter and later pulled out the chopper knife and attacked the victim, said police.

Ghaziabad: A 75-year-old jeweller was murdered in his shop by a 30-year-old man, police officials said. The accused allegedly entered the shop around 8:30am on Thursday with the intent of robbery, police said, adding that the incident was captured on a CCTV camera inside the shop.

The accused had suffered a loss of about ₹16-17 lakhs in online trading platforms, said the police.

The deceased, identified as Girdhari Lal Soni, operated the shop named ‘Girdhari Lal and Sons’ at Suchetapuri in Ghaziabad’s Modinagar for the past 60 years.

Police said Soni had just opened the shop and was alone when the incident took place.

The accused, identified as Ankit Gupta, 30, lives on rent with his family near Modipon Chowk in Modinagar, about 3 kms from the shop, and had previously worked as a driver with a bike-taxi service, police added.

“The accused,wearing a hoodie, entered our shop and asked my father about the keys to the safe. Then, he attacked my father with a sharp object and landed multiple blows on him. My brother, Rupendra Soni, 40, came to the shop and caught hold of the accused with help of some locals,” said Devender Soni, son of the deceased.

Local traders demanded strict action against the accused and alleged laxity on the part of the police.

“About two years ago, the accused lived in Suchetapuri and was familiar with the locality. He said that he knew that the jeweller would open his shop early in the morning and be alone,” said Amit Saxena, Modinagar circle, ACP.

The accused had suffered a loss of about ₹16-17 lakhs in online trading platforms, added the ACP.

A chopper knife and a toy gun, which the accused had purchased online two days ago, was recovered. He also brought chili powder from his home, police added.

“During the scuffle, the victim’s son also suffered a head injury. He is stable now,” the ACP said, adding that the body of the deceased was sent for an autopsy.

The CCTV footage showed that the accused threw chili powder at the counter and later pulled out the chopper knife and attacked the victim.

“The CCTV footage will be made part of the investigation. We have detained the accused and are interrogating him. An FIR for murder and other relevant sections will be lodged once we get a formal complaint from the family,” the ACP added.