Hotelier shot dead outside Ghaziabad condo gate, business partner main suspect

Ghaziabad: In a mob-style hit, a 35-year-old businessman was shot dead near the gates of his housing society in Raj Nagar Extension on Sunday night. Police said on Monday they had taken one suspect into custody and were looking for six others. The victim's business partner is the prime suspect. The gunmen came in a car that halted in front of Rahul Dagar, who owns a hotel at Haldwani in Uttarakhand, and his nephew Ashish just as they had stepped outside Classic Residency around 9.30 pm. Rahul died on the spot to a bullet injury he received in the stomach. Ashish was hit on the leg but survived.Rahul's brother-in-law Avinash Sirohi, who was nearby and also assaulted by the gunmen, claimed one of the attackers was the hotelier's business partner Nagendra Chaudhary. He also identified three other attackers as Mohit Chaudhary, Ritesh Bindal and a man who goes by the name Mantri. Ritesh has since been tracked and apprehended.Avinash claimed that Rahul, Nagendra, his brother Manish and their fourth partner recently had a fallout over managing the finances of their hotel, Shiva Palace."Rahul opened the hotel with Nagendra, Manish and Sonia Bajaj. Recently, Rahul and Sonia's husband Sachin Sharma, the hotel's manager, had a disagreement with the Chaudhary brothers when they found Nagendra had been diverting the hotel's earnings to his personal account," Avinash stated in the complaint he filed at Nandgram police station.According to the complainant, around 9.15 pm on Sunday, Nagendra called Rahul and the two had a heated argument."Nagendra kept threatening him with consequences. So, Rahul asked him to meet him outside Classic Residency. Around 5-7 minutes later, Nagendra, Mohit, Mantri, Ritesh and two other men pulled up outside the society in a car. First, they assaulted Rahul and Ashish. They turned to me as I started shouting for help. Then, right before my eyes, Nagendra and Mohit shot at Rahul and Ashish. Rahul had immediately collapsed to the ground, but Mohit sat on his chest and tried to strangle him," Avinash said."Ashish was writhing in pain as the bullet had hit his leg, but Ritesh and Mantri kept telling the two brothers to kill him and the men and get to the car," the complainant claimed. The two survived the attack as people started to gather outside the society, and assailants fled in their car.DCP (City) Dhawal Jaiswal told TOI that FIR had been registered against seven persons, including the Chaudhary brothers Nagendra and Manish, Mohit, Ritesh, Mantri and two unknown persons under the BNS sections 103 (murder), 109 (attempt to murder), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 191 (2) (rioting), 191 (3) (rioting, armed with deadly weapon)."Five teams were set up to track the accused. Ritesh was taken into police custody and is still being questioned to understand his role in the shootout," the officer said.The DCP said initial investigations revealed the two groups, or at least four to six of them, had dinner at a restaurant in Raj Nagar Extension on Sunday evening. A dispute broke out between the men after they left the restaurant. Police also claimed that a day before Rahul's murder, an FIR was filed against him and Avinash after a complaint was submitted by Ritesh, who claimed the two men had barged into his house last week with weapons and misbehaved with his family.ACP Nandgram Poonam Mishra said Ritesh owed Avinash Rs 5 lakh and Rahul another Rs 6.5 lakh. In his complaint, Ritesh claimed he had repaid the money, but on May 30, the two men barged into his house when he was not around and threatened his family. He also accused them of calling his wife and threatening to kill his son.The FIR was lodged under BNS sections 333 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 351 (3) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), the ACP said.