Man shot dead as ‘thief’ by factory guard a former worker; kin say he wanted PF money

Greater Noida: A man who had jumped over the boundary wall of a garment factory on Monday was shot dead by its guard. Police had assumed he was a thief.
He was Chandra Pratap. A 35-year-old who, according to his family, had come to Greater Noida from Ambedkar Nagar “to collect provident fund money”. Chandra Pratap was a former employee at the factory on whose compound he lay fatally wounded in the early hours of Monday.
His family, which has filed a police complaint and demanded a murder probe, said Chandra Pratap worked in the packaging department of the factory owned by Saras Impact — a company that makes garments and bags for export — for the last 12 years and was fired when the lockdown came into effect this year. Since then, the family claimed, he had been living in his hometown and had returned to Greater Noida on August 26 to see if he could collect dues.
“We were already worried as he had not contacted us for three days. As soon as we heard this news, we left for Greater Noida and reached the mortuary. There, I found my brother’s body that had already started decomposing,” said Pratap’s cousin Abhay Singh. Pratap’s father is in shock.
Pratap had apparently told his family that he would open a general store in the village with the money after coming back. “We were in touch with him until a week ago when his phone got lost,” Singh said, adding that a week before his death, Pratap had called his father and told him he would live on the company premises with some colleagues. Guard Vishnu Dayal Sharma (68), who shot Pratap, told police that he had confronted a man scaling a boundary wall of the factory, which is located in Ecotech 3. On being asked to surrender, Dayal alleged the man attacked him, and he fired two bullets at him in retaliation with his licensed gun and called police.
Police took him to a nearby hospital where he died during treatment. Later, the police said they had found nothing that could have helped them identify the man. None of the workers, according to police, could recognise him either. However, a case was lodged against the deceased for theft attempt on the complaint of the company management.
Chandra Pratap’s family, however, claimed a man currently employed in the company had called them to identify the deceased. Abhay Singh said, “Even if we consider that he was trying to steal and the security guard fired at him in self-defence, even then it is not clear why his colleagues could not recognise him. We demand an FIR in the matter.” He added that the company had recently sent some money to Chandra Pratap’s account and he wanted clarification on why the whole amount was not transferred.
Calls made by this correspondent to the owner of the company, Sandeep Saad, for a reaction went unanswered.
The police, however, have not yet filed a counter FIR, saying they have not found Chandra Pratap’s employment and attendance records of the years following 2016. “During investigation, it was found that this person had worked in the company from 2014 to 2016. He had left the job after that. So, the claims of the family are prima facie not true,” said Anita Chauhan, SHO of Ecotech 3, adding the guard had joined work four months ago, and so, did not know Pratap.
Chauhan said that complaint of Chandra Pratap’s family had been attached to the original FIR. “We are investigating the case from all possible angles, including the family’s allegations of murder. We are also trying to get details of the provident fund of the deceased from the ESI department,” she added.
It’s not clear why Pratap tried to scale the wall; had he approached the main gate and tried another route because he was asked to leave? The investigation will also look at this.