Akshay Kalra murder case: Residents’ associations in Noida demand arrests

A group of residents on Wednesday held a meeting at Stellar Park Society in Noida’s Sector 62, demanding that arrests be made in the murder case of Akshay Kalra,

A group of residents on Wednesday held a meeting at Stellar Park Society in Noida’s Sector 62, demanding that arrests be made in the murder case of Akshay Kalra, the 24-year-old student who was critically injured while resisting car robbery outside his house in the area on September 2 and died two days later at a private hospital. Residents said that even after a week, the Noida police have not been able to find a concrete clue in this case.

HT Image

S K Gupta, the convener of the Coordination Committee of residents’ welfare association (RWA) federation Sector 62, said that 47 high-rise societies are members of this committee. “All members and residents are concerned over the safety and security of residents since Kalra’s death. So we planned the meeting wherein members of some societies shared their opinions on phone and through whatsapp. Members of 25 residential societies participated in the meeting in person,” he said.

Gupta said that the police did a good job by rushing Kalra to a hospital. “However, they should have immediately sealed Noida’s borders and launched a manhunt. But they did not do so and the suspect(s) managed to escape with the car. The police have not shared with us any concrete clue they got in this case. We are planning to meet the Noida police commissioner over the issue,” Gupta said.

Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1, meanwhile said that the police have mapped the city and already made a project to install CCTV cameras at different places under the Safe City Project. “The Central and state governments will fund the project at a 60:40 ratio. The police have also improved night patrolling in Noida. We are also changing the patrolling routes and improving the presence of police personnel on roads,” he said.

On investigation in the Kalra murder case, Singh said 50 personnel in ten teams are conducting searches in western Uttar Pradesh district such as Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr and Meerut, as well as in neighbouring Delhi, Haryana and Jaipur. “We have scanned about 30 cameras from the route Kalra took that night. We hope to solve the case soon,” he said.

The student was left critically injured after resisting unidentified carjackers who fled with his SUV just about 100 metres from his home in Sector 62. He had left his house in Stellar Park, a housing society in Noida’s Sector 62, in a white Hyundai Creta car at 10.45pm. However, sometime later, a police team found him unconscious on the road with several injuries. His wallet was also missing.