PhD scholar murder: Body parts untraceable, Ghaziabad police charge-sheets two

According to police, Ankit Khokhar, who hailed from Baghpat district, was the suspect Umesh Sharma’s tenant for at least six months before he was murdered on October 6, 2022

Unable to trace the body parts of a 40-year-old PhD scholar, Ankit Khokhar, who was strangled to death before being dismembered allegedly by his landlord Umesh Sharma in Modinagar on October 6, the Ghaziabad police has filed a charge-sheet in the case against prime suspect Sharma and his cousin Pravesh Sharma.

According to police, Ankit Khokhar was murdered and his body parts disposed of in Khatauli, near the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, and the Upper Ganga Canal in western Uttar Pradesh. (HT Archive)

According to police, Khokhar was murdered and his body parts disposed of in Khatauli, near the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, and the Upper Ganga Canal in western Uttar Pradesh.

The incident came to fore in December 2022 when a group of Khokhar ’s friends started noticing his prolonged absence and approached the Ghaziabad police for help. Khokhar’s landlord Umesh Sharma was arrested on December 14, 2022, and the police also arrested Sharma’s cousin Pravesh Sharma a couple of days later.

“In this connection we have filed a charge-sheet against Umesh and Pravesh. The charge-sheet is filed for murder, destruction of evidence, theft and criminal conspiracy. The body parts have been not been recovered but we have enough scientific evidences in form of blood stains found in Khokhar’s room, hair found in the car in which his body parts were disposed of, etc,” said Ravi Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (rural).

According to police, Khokhar, who hailed from Baghpat district, was Umesh’s tenant for at least six months before he was murdered on October 6, 2022. He was the only surviving member of his family and had sold his parental property for ₹1 crore three months before the murder, police officers said, adding that this money was the motive for the killing.

Khokhar’s father died in 2014 while his mother died of a stroke a year later. His sister had died when she was just 12 years old, police said.

At least three months before the murder, Umesh took a loan of ₹40 lakh from Khokhar. After the murder, Umesh withdrew ₹20 lakh using Khokhar’s cards, investigators said.

He later gave Khokhar’s ATM card to Pravesh, and asked him to withdraw more money, police said. More money was withdrawn from Khokhar’s account from ATMs in Haridwar, Rishikesh and Roorkee in Uttarakhand, police added.

After his arrest on December 14, Umesh told police that he strangled Khokhar at his house in Modinagar, dismembered the body into three pieces and dumped them at three different locations after transporting them in a car which he borrowed from one of his friends.

The DCP said the DNA report on the samples collected from crime scenes is awaited.

“Once the reports are received, we will file a supplementary charge-sheet. The main charge-sheet was sent to court on March 14. We have enough electronic evidence of withdrawal of money by Umesh as well,” the DCP said further.