A 50-year-old wholesale trader was shot dead at point blank range by two armed young men inside his shop in Nangloi here on Saturday during a robbery. No arrests have been made so far.
Naresh Kumar, who dealt in rice and sugar, was at his shop in Yadav Park around 8 p.m. when two young men came to him carrying arms and asked him to hand over the cash to them. “One of the assailants, who was dark complexioned and lean, had taken the position near the main gate of the shop while his accomplice, who had stout built, walked up to Naresh uncle and held a firearm against his chest demanding cash. When I intervened, one of them hit me with the butt of the firearm. When Naresh uncle refused to hand over the cash, the dark-complexioned assailant came up to him and shot him in the chest from point blank range. The two then took out money from the coffer and ran away,” said Vimal Lochab, 20, who works as an accountant in the victim’s Ganesh Trading Company and is an eye-witness to the murder.
Naresh then got up from his seat and collapsed after walking a few steps towards Vimal. Hearing the gunshots, Naresh’s brother Rajender and cousin Satish came rushing to the shop and took the trader to Balaji Action Hospital where he was declared brought dead. Vimal made a call to the Police Control Room.
A police team found a live cartridge and a spent cartridge at the spot.
For their part, the police said the motive behind the murder was robbery. “The robbers took away Rs.3 lakh. It is a case of robbery. A crime team visited the spot to collect the evidence. Efforts are being made to identify and arrest the assailants,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (West) V. Renganathan.
Naresh was a resident of Nangloi Extension-IV.
A case has been registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death) of the Indian Penal Code and under the Arms Act.
