Businessman arrested for rival’s murder

SURAT: A 29-year-old cement businessman was arrested from an area under the limits of Sachin police station for the former’s alleged involvement in the murder of his erstwhile employee who had lately become his competitor. The accused feared that the deceased will kill him since he had issued him threats in the past.

Police arrested Sidhhant alias Nagendra Beniprasad Yadav, a resident of Surat district, for alleged murder of Lakshman Radhekrishna Kashyap, 29, a resident of the city. Kashyap was found murdered on Kharwasa village to Boland village road on December 5. He was strangled to death by contract killers, police investigation revealed.

Yadav used to buy stolen cement from truck drivers which he later sold it in market. Kashyap had worked with Yadav in the past and hence was aware of his business model. Kashyap left Yadav’s job and started doing the same business and soon dispute surfaced between them. Meanwhile, Kashyap started issuing threats to Yadav. “Yadav feared that Kashyap will kill him and out of fear, he planned the murder of Kashyap,” said a police officer at Sachin police station.

Yadav contacted a few men from outside the city and hired them to kill Kashyap for Rs3 lakh. The killers arrived in the city and kept a watch on the movement of Kashyap. On the day of murder, they met the victim posing as cops from crime branch. They asked him to accompany them in a car and later strangled the victim and dumped his body in a drain.

The gang escaped with the debit card of the accused. The gang members withdrew cash from automatic teller machines at Palsana, Daman and Mumbai.