Ghaziabad: Man found murdered, roommate flees after locking room

A 24-year-old man was found murdered in his third-floor rented room in Ambedkar Colony of Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad late Tuesday night, senior police officers said, adding that his roommate has fled after locking the door from outside and is the prime suspect in the case.

The police said they identified the deceased as Shubham Kumar, 24, who hailed from Varanasi, while his roommate was identified as Prem Kumar, 25, also from Varanasi. The two were working in a private firm as tach staff for repairing solar panels.

Priyashri Pal, assistant commissioner of police(city 1), said the body was discovered by their landlord Himanshu Gautam, who then reported the matter to the police and also filed an FIR of murder at Vijay Nagar police station.

Gautam said he owned the three-storeyed building and his family reside in the ground floor while the remaining three floors are occupied by tenants.

“The third floor was taken on rent by the deceased, who was staying there since the past two or three years. Prem Kumar joined him as a roommate about two months ago. The two were friends and used to do all household chores by themselves. However, they were fighting since the past two or three days over the chores not being done correctly,” Gautam said.

He said on Tuesday morning, Shubham went for work while Prem remained at home.

“Around 11am, Shubham returned home. Around 4pm, Prem called me up and requested that I transfer ₹5,000 to his online wallet as a loan. I transferred the money. Around 8pm, I went to the third floor and called Prem. But, he was not there and the door was locked from outside. Through the window, I saw Shubham lying still on the floor and I sensed some foul play,” Gautam said.

He broke open the door and found the deceased bleeding profusely from a head wound. Thereafter, he informed police.

“Our teams reached the spot and it looked that the deceased suffered a blow from a heavy blunt object. His roommate is missing since the incident and he locked the room from outside. Our teams collected forensic evidence and also got statements of people residing in the building,” Pal said.

The police said they have formed several teams to trace Prem Kumar.