Five held for murder of cloth trader in Ghaziabad

The Kavi Nagar police here on Thursday claimed to have solved the murder case of a cloth trader with the arrest of five people.

SSP Sudhir Kumar Singh said Amit Seth was killed by three bike-borne assailants outside his residence at Chiranjiv Vihar on September 25.

The SSP said the mastermind of the crime, Rohit, initially worked at Amit's dying factory.

Later, he became his partner and started purchasing fabric for sale in the market.

He had purchased cloth worth Rs 96 lakh on credit from Amit, the SSP said, adding that Seth pressured Rohit to pay the amount, resulting in heated arguments between the two.

Debt-ridden Rohit allegedly planned to eliminate Seth to get rid of the dispute and hatched a plan with his associate Sunder, a native of Dujana village in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

They arranged three contract killers in Rs 5 lakh, paying Rs 2 lakh in advance, the SSP said.

Three days before the incident, Rohit and Sunder showed Seth's house to the goons, identified as Pawan, Akash and Sagar.

On September 22, Sagar stole a bike from Omex Mall, Noida, which was used in a detailed recce of Seth's schedule.

On September 25, Rohit called Amit on the pretext of a deal.

The contract killers were waiting for Seth to come out of his house, the SSP said.

After receiving the call, Seth came out and started his SUV.

As he drove away, the trio intercepted him SUV and fired indiscriminately, the police officer said, adding that the trio then informed Rohit and went back to Meerut.

Seth was rushed to a private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Upon secret information, all five accused--Rohit, Pawan, Akash, Veeru and Sunder--were arrested at 1.30 pm on Thursday in Kavi Nagar.

Two countrymade pistols, eight live cartridges, a bike, scooty, two mobile phones and Rs 25,000 in cash were recovered seized from them.