Ghaziabad trader's murder worked out, claim police; one held

Police in Ghaziabad have arrested a criminal involved in the killing of a city trader on Tuesday, a senior police officer said on Saturday.

Unravelling the murder mystery at a press conference, Superintendent of Police-City (SP-City) Akash Tomar said three persons were involved in the crime and the trader was murdered over a financial dispute.

According to Tomar, during patrolling near Sihani Gate area in the city, the police team spotted a person moving around in a suspicious manner. They caught hold of him and questioned him, but he failed to come up with satisfactory replies to their queries. He was then taken to the police station.

On sustained interrogation, he revealed his name as Mintu Tyagi alias Kuldeep Tyagi -- a resident of Siddique Nagar locality in Ghaziabad. He confessed to killing the trader on November 21, along with two of his accomplices. On his information, the police recovered a country-made pistol of .315 bore.

Mintu gave the names of two other persons involved in the crime as Bunty Tyagi and Rajiv Sharma.

They killed the trader following a dispute over Rs 2.5 lakh. The deceased was demanding the money back that he had lent to the accused. Irritated with his reminders, the criminals eliminated him.

Earlier, the traders' organisations had given the police a 24-hour ultimatum to work out the killing.

Trader Gagandeep Khanduja was killed when he was on his way back to home on his two-wheeler after buying a cake to celebrate the birthday of his son. The assailants shot him twice in his head near Nehru Yuva Kendra in the city.

Khanduja was rushed to hospital, but he was declared dead.

"The deceased trader and the accused persons had business relations and money-lending between the two sides would happen every now and then. But this time, reminders to return the money proved fatal for the trader. We are trying to nab the absconding two other criminals," said Tomar.

--IANS

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