Three held for murder of trader in Sadar Bazar

The police on Saturday arrested three men for allegedly murdering the owner of a garment shop in Sadar Bazar, 18 days after the victim was shot dead near the Jain temple in the market, about 100 metres from his shop.

Sudhir Taneja, 50, was shot dead by at least three men on May 28 around 9.30 pm, when he was returning to his house on a scooter. The accused men stole Taneja’s bag containing the earnings from his shop and some cash from a lottery (committee) he ran and fled with his scooter. Taneja sustained three wounds in his chest and was taken to a private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The suspects have been identified as Suraj Kataria alias Chotu, Manoj Kumar alias Monu, and Suraj Kumar. Kataria was arrested from Bahadurgarh bus stand by a joint team of the crime branch of Sector 39 and the Jhajjar Police. Monu and Suraj Kumar were arrested from Gurgaon village and Jyoti Park in the city respectively.

The police said the mastermind behind the murder was Kataria, a history-sheeter, who has at least five criminal cases including cases of snatching, theft, robbery and loot registered against him. Kataria was acquitted in two of these cases and came out of jail in January 2019. Suraj Kumar has also been booked at the City police station for allegedly looting from a petrol pump.

Muhammad Akil, commissioner of police, said that after Kataria was released, he met his friend, Monu, at his house and asked him to plan a “job” where both could make “big” money.

The police said that Monu had seen Taneja taking cash from customers at his shop and was aware that he often carried large volumes of cash either from the day’s earnings or from the lottery (committee) he ran. To carry out the loot, they enlisted another aide, Suraj Kumar.

Akil said, “Monu and Suraj Kumar had been closely following the movements of Taneja and had done a reconnaissance of the market, the route that he took, and the opening and closing hours of his shop. They had done a recce a month prior to the incident. They came for yet another recce a week prior to the incident and on the day of the incident.”

Kataria had roped in two aides for the recce as he himself was known to several people in the Sadar Bazar area.

The police said, Kataria and his two aides, on the night of May 28,waylaid the victim as he was returning on his scooter and asked him to hand over his bag containing the cash at gun point. When the victim resisted, the accused men shot him in the chest and fled on his scooter with the bag.

The police said preliminary probe has revealed that the victim was carrying ₹1.9 lakh in cash, and so far the police have recovered ₹10,200 from the possession of the suspects.

Akil said that the police built upon the trail from the market by pruning footage from multiple CCTV cameras in the area to zero in on the suspects. In one of the CCTV footages, three men were spotted leaving the market on a scooter while in another, their movement was spotted near Subhash Chowk. The police identified them after the footage was sent for forensic analysis.

The police had earlier detained a domestic help of the victim, but later ruled out his involvement in the crime.

First Published: Jun 17, 2019 00:16 IST