Ghaziabad: Three of cloth trader’s family shot dead in Loni

The incident took place between 2.30am and 3am in Toli Mohalla of Loni, the police said. The deceased were identified as Haji Raisuddin, the trader, and his two sons, Azhar, 30, and Imran, 25.

A 65-year-old cloth trader and his two sons were shot dead, while his wife suffered critical gunshot wounds after unidentified men opened fire at them in their home in Ghaziabad’s Loni town early Monday morning.

A view of the crime scene where a robbery was reported late last night in which three people were shot dead, at Toli Mohalla in Loni, Ghaziabad. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The incident took place between 2.30am and 3am in Toli Mohalla of Loni, the police said.

The deceased were identified as Haji Raisuddin, the trader, and his two sons, Azhar, 30, and Imran, 25.

Raisuddin’s wife, Fatima, sustained gunshot wounds to her face and is undergoing treatment at a hospital, the police said, adding that all the four victims sustained about seven gunshot wounds each.

“It is still not known who fired at them as the main entrance to the house was found locked from inside. As of now, we have not found any motive for the robbery and murder. Of the five members in the house at the time of the incident, only Azhar’s wife Afsana was found with zero injuries,” Iraj Raja, superintendent of police (rural), said on Monday morning.

Alimuddin, another son of the trader who lives separately nearby, said he gave a complaint to the police at 3pm on Monday.

“I have mentioned that ₹20-25 lakh cash, and some gold and silver jewellery were taken away. I gave my complaint to police at 3pm and thereafter I went for the formalities of postmortem and the burial,” he said.

But police maintained that they did not receive a complaint from the family till Monday evening.

Police said they took leads from the statements made by Afsana, the only one of the five occupants of the house to be found unharmed.

OP Singh, station house officer of Loni police station, said Monday evening, “We have not received any complaint in the case. We are speaking to the two women to get more clues.”

Later in the day, inspector general (Meerut range) Praveen Kumar visited Loni to take stock of the situation.

“We have some vital clues and the investigation is on. We will examine the complaint which, I am told, was received,” the Meerut IG told reporters.

Raja said, “We have formed three teams to investigate the case. Prima facie, there was no sign of forced entry. It seems that the assailants were already inside the house, or that they were allowed entry later. It could also be an insider’s job. We are investigating all possibilities.”

Since Toli Mohalla is a congested locality, the police are also trying to probe if the assailants entered the house by jumping over the terraces of nearby houses.

In the evening, however, senior officials of the Ghaziabad police could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

The public relation officer of the Ghaziabad police responded to a call on SSP Amit Pathak’s official number and said he will revert about the query made for the FIR copy.

However, he did not respond to HT’s calls later.

The other relatives of the family who live nearby said that they heard a number of shots being fired around 2.30am and rushed to the victim’s house.

“I saw two assailants fleeing after the incident. They were firing shots in the air. I heard about 15 gunshots. I was sleeping on terrace of my house nearby and rushed to my uncle’s house where I found that my uncle, his wife and my brothers were lying injured,” said Mehraj ali, a relative of the family.

“Imran is unmarried. Azhar’s wife, who is three months pregnant, sustained no gunshot injuries but she fell unconscious during the shooting incident,” said Ali.

He added that his aunt who sustained gunshot wounds, opened the main door when he rushed to her house.

“The family has five shops. It appears to be a case of loot and murder,” he added.