Greater Noida: Three suspects arrested after brief gunfight for teenager’s kidnap and murder

Three suspects arrested for abducting and killing 15-year-old in Greater Noida. Police say motive was monetary dispute. Efforts underway to nab woman involved.

The Greater Noida police late Wednesday night arrested three suspects on charges of abducting and killing the 15-year-old son of a dhaba owner, who was taken from outside his father’s eatery in Greater Noida’s Beta 2 sector last Wednesday (May 1) by a group of people, including a woman, who arrived in a white car.

Police said on Sunday, Kunal Sharma’s body was found in a canal in Milka Mosamgarh in Bulandshahr, around 50 kilometres from Greater Noida.

Police on Wednesday issued a press statement saying the three arrested suspects are “hardcore criminals” and they changed the white car after kidnapping the teenager from outside the dhaba.

“The suspects have been identified as Kunal Bhati, a resident of Kasna in Greater Noida, and Bulandshahr residents Himanshu Singh, and Manoj, who goes by a single name,” SM Khan, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said, adding that a monetary dispute between the suspects and the teenager was the motive for the murder.

“On Wednesday night, police received information that a car (Skoda) used in the crime was spotted near Dadha roundabout in Greater Noida. So a trap was laid,” said DCP Khan, adding that the suspects were nabbed while they were on their way to “erase evidence”.

“When the police team tried to nab the suspects, they fired at the police party. Police returned the fire and Bhati suffered a gunshot wound. During questioning, they told police that they had a monetary dispute with Sharma and so they killed him. Efforts are underway to nab the woman, who was captured by CCTV cameras talking to Sharma at the Dhaba. It was she who later led him to the white car parked outside and made off with him,” said Khan.

Another senior police officer associated with the probe said they zeroed in on the Skoda by using CCTV camera footage. “We traced the suspects with the help of CCTV footage from various places and we learnt that the perpetrators changed the car used in the crime soon after abducting Sharma. The suspects are suspected to be hardcore criminals, and their previous crime records are being ascertained.”

Police recovered the car, used in crime, a bag, two illegal countrymade pistols, five live and two empty cartridges from their possession.

Meanwhile, the Greater Noida police is also facing allegations of torturing a 16-year-old boy, who they had picked up in connection with the case, and releasing him to his family only after he allegedly fell unconscious.

While the police have refuted the allegations, the boy’s sister said he continues to remain unconscious and under treatment at hospital.

“My 16-year-old brother, who used to work at the eatery with Kunal, was picked up by police on May 1 and kept in custody till May 3 and beaten until he fainted,” said the boy’s sister Priya Sharma.

“Police admitted him to a hospital and informed us. Since then, he is unconscious, and we have no information about what happened in custody,” she said.

“All allegations made by his family members are baseless, the boy was not assaulted in police custody,” said Ashok Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida.