23-year-old beaten to death with iron rods on road in Ghaziabad

A 23-year-old man was bludgeoned to death in full public view on a road in Ankur Vihar area of Loni in Ghaziabad on Monday morning. Two suspects were arrested in

A 23-year-old man was bludgeoned to death in full public view on a road in Ankur Vihar area of Loni in Ghaziabad on Monday morning. Two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident.

HT Image

Police said the suspects, 21-year-old Govind Sharma and his friend 22-year-old Amit Kumar, were jealous over the victim Ajay Kumar’s flower business doing well. All three were residents of Sarita Vihar in Delhi.

The murder happened even as passersby and vehicles rushed past, some even stopping to take videos of the attack that later found their way to social media. The videos purportedly caught an unmasked Govind and Amit beating the victim with iron rods multiple times before fleeing.

Police said the duo had pulled the victim out of an auto-rickshaw he had hired to go home after closing his shop for the day at around 11.30 am and assaulted him.

“They kept on hitting him for about 3-4 minutes and later fled. When police received information about the assault, a team rushed to the spot near DLF Ankur Vihar and took the victim to a hospital where he succumbed to severe head injuries,” said Iraj Raja, superintendent of police (rural).

Later, police formed several teams to arrest the suspects.

“The two suspects were arrested from Loni. Govind is the prime suspect and he had planned the murder with the help of his accomplice. Govind operated a flower shop for the past several years outside a temple in Loni, while the victim had opened up his shop about eight months ago. The prime suspect said that this affected his busines,” said Iraj Raja, superintendent of police (rural). While videos showed one of the suspects holding what appeared to be a gun, Raja said no shots were fired in the crime. “We have also recovered the blood stained iron rods from the suspects.”

Police said Govind and Ajay had argued over the issue several times previously.

On the day, another video emerged in which Govind was purportedly seen stabbing the victim’s brother, Sanjay Kumar, at the shop and had threatened to kill him.

“That incident happened in April this year. We have informed senior officers about it and an inquiry is going on against the local police post officers to find if they were lax in dealing with that . I have been informed that the two parties involved in that incident had reached a compromise and gave it in writing to the police. I have issued directions to find this compromise letter and probe details of the case,” said the SP.

The family of the victim also gave a police complaint on Monday in which they named Govind. The two suspects were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) with 34 (common intention), and police said they will also levy section 120B (criminal conspiracy).