Ghaziabad: Businessman found shot dead on road, 3 held

A 26-year-old man, who went on a holiday to Haridwar with his three friends on Monday night, turned up dead with a gunshot wound to the head on the roadside in Nehru Nagar on Tuesday morning, police said, adding that the three friends have been arrested in connection with the murder.

Their interrogation has revealed that one of them shot him dead with a countrymade weapon, said police.

Police identified the dead man as Rishabh Gupta, who ran a business of ceramic tiles and resided in Panchvati Colony.

The three suspects were identified as Anuj Sharma, 27, Pulkit Goyal, 28, and Rishabh’s cousin, Mukul Gupta, 26.

Explaining the sequence of events, police said on Tuesday morning, they discovered the body on the roadside in Nehru Nagar and beside it was a countrymade weapon and the victim’s mobile phone.

Based on the name “‘Rishabh” tattooed on his hand, and also the details from the mobile phone, police established the identity of the dead man and sent the body, which had a gunshot wound to the back of the head, for an autopsy.

Police said they questioned Gupta’s family and came to know that Gupta had left on a holiday to Haridwar with his three friends on Monday night.

Police said they travelled in Goyal’s car to Haridwar. On the way, they had food and drinks in the car itself.

Following the discovery of the body on Tuesday morning, several police teams were roped in, and Mukul, Gupta’s cousin, was the first to be questioned by police on Tuesday afternoon.

“Mukul told us that when they reached near Partapur in Meerut, they decided to return to Ghaziabad and started driving back home. Sharma was driving the car. They reached Ghaziabad late Monday night and were simply driving around when Gupta asked Sharma to stop the car near a urinal in Nehru Nagar. As he alighted, Sharma allegedly came out and shot Rishabh in the head with the countrymade weapon. Thereafter, all three fled in the car after leaving the weapon near the body,” said Rajesh Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (city).

Explaining the motive for the murder, police said Gupta and Sharma used to be business partners about one-and-a-half years ago and they parted ways over a business related dispute that had turned acrimonious.

Police said while returning to Ghaziabad from Meerut, Sharma had stopped the car at his house in Panchvati for about 5-10 minutes.

“It is suspected that he had fetched the weapon from his house and later used it to murder Gupta. We have come to know that Sharma and Gupta were business partners and they parted ways around one-and-half years ago over a business-related dispute. We suspect that this was the motive for murder. All three suspects have been arrested,” the DCP said.

The incident happened under the jurisdiction of Sihani Gate police station area. Gupta’s family has given a police complaint and an FIR of murder is being registered against the three suspects, the DCP said.

.