Two more held for murder of Sadar Bazar businessman

The police on Tuesday arrested two more men for allegedly murdering the owner of a garment shop near Jain temple in Sadar Bazar on May 28.

The total number of men arrested in the case now is five.

Sudhir Taneja was shot dead by three men on May 28 around 9.30pm, when he was returning to his house on a scooter. The men allegedly stole Taneja’s bag containing earnings from his shop and some cash from a lottery (committee) he ran and fled with his scooter. Taneja sustained three gunshot wounds to the chest and was taken to a private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The suspectswere identified as Saurav Kumar alias Mahakal, 20, and Ajay Kumar, 19, both from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. The police arrested them from Rohana village in Uttar Pradesh. They have recovered a countrymade pistol from the suspects.

The men were identified with the help of footage from CCTVs installed near the spot.

On Saturday, the police had arrested Suraj Kataria alias Chotu, Manoj Kumar alias Monu and Suraj Kumar. They had allegedly recovered ₹10,200 of the ₹1.9 lakh snatched from the victim during the incident.

According to the police, preliminary probe has revealed that Ajay and Kataria met each other sometime ago in Jhajjar’s Khungai village. Saurav allegedly met Kataria through Ajay.

The police said that Saurav and Ajay had accompanied Kataria, the mastermind of the murder, to the spot and shot at Taneja, and the three of them fled with the victim’s scooter. Suraj Kumar and Manoj, who were waiting for them in a car near the spot, followed them.

The police had earlier said that after his release from jail, Kataria went to meet Manoj and asked him to hatch a plan to make money. Manoj had seen Taneja taking cash from customers at his shop and knew that he often carried a lot of cash either from the day’s earnings or from the lottery (committee) he ran, the police said. Subsequently, they roped in Suraj Kumar, Saurav and Ajay to shoot him, the police said.

The police said that the arrested men will be produced in a district court on Wednesday and remanded to their custody.