They shot my son as I looked on: Noida villager

Wearing a blood-stained white pyjama and drenched in rain, a a Noida villager on Wednesday recalled the horror of watching the fatal shooting of his young son by four men a day ago and rued police inaction on their earlier complaints.

Gajraj Singh, 48, recounted how his son Sajan Bhati was shot outside their house in Salarpur village in Noida by Gajraj's cousins over a property dispute.

The grieving villager rued that they had filed multiple complaints with police against 'criminals' who had attacked Bhati earlier also, but no action was taken.

"We had complained many times earlier also, but police did nothing. They're taking money from these criminals," he claimed.

Bhati, 25, a gym instructor, had just reached his house after work in an Accent car around 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday when he was attacked.

"I was standing in the balcony. Before my son parked his car, a car too parked ahead of him and a Scorpio SUV behind him," Gajraj Singh said.

Even before Bhati could get out, five persons alighted from the car parked ahead of him and rushed towards his vehicle. While one of them took away the car key, four others opened fire.

Gajraj Singh said he rushed downstairs to confront the assailants, but they fled the spot.

"My son was covered in blood with gunshot wounds all over his body," the grieving man said.

Though Bhati was rushed to a nearby hospital, he was declared brought dead.

On Wednesday morning, Gajraj Singh along with other villagers blocked a highway in the area by placing Bhati's body there to protest police inaction.

The blockade was removed after senior police officers promised action, though Singh sid he is not optimistic about any action.

Gajraj Singh said his accused relatives had taken over his land along the main road and were constructing a building there, against which he had obtained a court stay.

"Police did nothing when my son was alive. Do you think they're going to do something after he is dead?" the former Delhi Transport Corporation driver said while shaking his head from side to side.

At their house, around 50 women mourners sat on the ground, most of them crying. Loud wails broke out when someone called out Bhati's name.

Sajan is survived by his wife and two sons, agaed three and five.

"His wife Ratna has been crying all along and has been taken to a doctor after she fainted," a person standing among a group of onlookers outside the house said.

--IANS

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