PhD scholar murder case: Ghaziabad cops look for third suspect

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police have a third suspect on their radar in the brutal murder case of the 40-year-old PhD scholar Ankit Khokhar, police said on Saturday

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police have a third suspect on their radar in the brutal murder case of the 40-year-old PhD scholar Ankit Khokhar, police said on Saturday.

PhD scholar murder case: Ghaziabad cops look for third suspect

The suspect allegedly provided the car to prime suspect Umesh Sharma for disposing of the body parts of Khokhar.

According to police, Khokhar’s body was dismembered into three pieces after his murder on October 6.

Police have already arrested Khokhar’s landlord and prime suspect Umesh Sharma and his cousin Pravesh Sharma. Police said that Umesh wanted to lay hands on the ₹1 crore cash, which the victim received after selling his parental property at Mukundpur in Baghpat district about three months ago.

During interrogation, Umesh told police that he dismembered Khokhar’s body into three parts and packed them in polythene bags. Later, he dumped the bags at three different locations in Khatauli, near the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and at a canal in Muradnagar.

“Umesh used a car to dispose of the body parts packed in polythene bags. During investigation, it has come to light that the car he used was probably a Hyundai Accent and it is suspected that it belongs to his friend Rahul Sharma. The person is yet to be traced and not present at home. Once our teams trace him, he will be able to reveal more details of the incident. At present, he is the third suspect in the case and our teams are trying to trace him at the earliest,” said Iraj Raja, deputy commissioner of police, Ghaziabad (rural).

Police said that they are still searching for the missing body parts of Khokhar but without any success.

“We will apply for the police remand of Umesh from a Ghaziabad court and at least five days of remand will be requested. This is vital because we need to know the location of the body parts,” DCP Raja said.

Police said that Umesh had taken a loan of ₹40 lakh from Khokhar, who considered Umesh’s wife Mamta as a sister. Umesh later withdrew about ₹20 lakh by using Khokhar’s online banking and ATM cards, police added.

During initial interrogation, Umesh also told police that he murdered and disposed of Khokhar’s body on October 6. Khokhar was staying at one of the houses of Umesh on rent and was the only surviving member in his family. His sister died at the age of 12, while his parents died in 2014 and 2016.

Further, police maintained that Umesh also gave Khokhar’s ATM cards to his cousin Pravesh, who withdrew a total of about ₹1.20 lakh in three different transactions from ATMs in Rishikesh, Haridwar and Roorkee in Uttarakhand.