Two arrested for killing property dealer for not paying ₹2 crore
Officials said suspect Neeraj Gupta, a resident of Khoda in Ghaziabad, called Jha to the meeting near the Sector 137 Metro station
Three days after a 50-year-old property dealer was shot dead in full public view near Sector 137 Metro station on Saturday night, police on Tuesday arrested two people in connection with the murder and said they killed the man after he allegedly refused to pay them ₹2 crore.
The arrested men were identified as Shakti Kumar Giri, 52, a resident of Govindpuri in Delhi, and Rajesh Kumar Gupta, 55, a resident of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh.
Police said the suspects were demanding ₹2 crore from the victim, Navendra Kumar Jha, a resident of Sector 92 in Noida. On Saturday, he was called to a compromise meeting to settle the three-year-old dispute. When he arrived near the Sector 137 Metro station for the meeting, he was shot dead and the man who pulled the trigger is still at large, said police.
Officials said suspect Neeraj Gupta, a resident of Khoda in Ghaziabad, called Jha to the meeting near the Sector 137 Metro station.
“It came to fore that Jha had bought a house in Sector 92 from Neeraj for ₹1.28 crore, and since then they have been locked in a dispute as Neeraj sold his home without the consent of his brother Rajesh Kumar,” said Shakti Mohan Avasthy, deputy commissioner of police, central Noida.
“Neeraj and his brother were demanding ₹2 crore more to sort things out between them,” the DCP said.
They also planned that if things went wrong during the meeting, they would kill Jha. “As per the plan, when the issue escalated, a man who was accompanying the brothers allegedly shot Jha from behind,” said a senior police officer, adding that they later they fled the spot, leaving Jha bleeding profusely.
On the complaint by Jha’s son, a case of murder under section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Sector 142 police station, and conspirator Giri and Rajesh Kumar were arrested.
They both have a criminal record and Rajesh Kumar was also jailed in the past for killing his father. Further investigation is underway to nab the shooter, police said.