A 45-year-old builder was shot dead by four bike-borne men in broad daylight in outer Delhi’s Ranhola on Saturday. Victim Rajender Goyal was a resident of Uttam Nagar and the sole breadwinner for his family.
He was shot dead outside the Kanak Banquet Restaurant and Guest House, which he had been constructing for the last two years and was nearing completion.
It was named after his 15-month-old daughter Kanak, the family said.
‘Accused followed him’
An eyewitness, identified as Sohan Pal Gupta (60), owner of a hardware shop right next to the banquet, said Goyal stopped his car outside the banquet around 9 a.m. The accused shot him at least six times while he was inside his car, Mr. Gupta said, adding: “It appeared that they were following him. They did not even let him step out of the car.”
Hearing the gunshots, Mr. Gupta and his 15-year-old helper came out of their shop, but were allegedly shown the pistol.
“By then, they had already killed him. A man wearing a white shirt and pant abused me and pointed the gun in my direction to scare me. I stood there. They left on two bikes,” he said.
Rajender’s employees and co-workers said he had received three calls in the last week from a man who demanded ₹50 lakh from him.
His co-worker Amit Chauhan said Rajender owned several properties across outer Delhi and that he was a property dealer until two years ago, before he started constructing the banquet.
Before getting into property dealing business he used to run an eatery, which did not do very well. However, the property dealing business brought him success.
“He had put his heart and soul in constructing the banquet. It would have opened soon. He had planned to get bookings opened in the first week of August. It was already booked for a function on August 30,” Mr. Chauhan said, adding that the furniture would have been set up on Monday.
Goyal had booked air tickets to Tirupati on Friday evening for a religious visit with two of his friends.
The victim is survived by his wife, three minor children, including a son and two daughters, his parents, younger brother and his wife who live in Uttam Nagar.
Murder case registered
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Seju P. Kuruvilla said that the police have registered a murder case.
CCTV footage from the spot has been obtained and is being examined.
“We are also checking all his monetary transactions in the last few months. The calls received by the victim are also being looked into,” Mr. Kuruvilla said.