Man beats theft suspect to death, arrested

Ghaziabad: A 30-year-old man was arrested for allegedly beating a 40-year-old man to death in Ghaziabad’s Khoda Colony after he caught him stealing. The accused, Ankit Yadav, allegedly dumped the victim’s body outside a hospital in the city, triggering a police investigation. A zero FIR was registered in Noida, and the case was later transferred to Khoda police station.Police said that around 6.40am on April 27, police received information through the emergency helpline 112 that an unidentified body had been found near the entrance of Child PGI in Sector 30. Cops reached the spot and found multiple injuries on the body that were consistent with severe assault.An autopsy was conducted, and police began combing through CCTV footage from the hospital and nearby areas to identify both the victim and the accused. CCTV footage led cops to the car used to transport the body, whose owner was identified as Ashok Kumar, a resident of Gadhi Chaukhandi village in Noida Phase-3.Kumar informed cops that he had lent his car to his son’s brother-in-law, Ankit Yadav, a resident of Khoda Colony, the night of the crime. Yadav had not returned with the car since, he told cops.A police team went to Khoda and showed locals photos of Yadav. The investigation revealed that on the intervening night of April 26 and 27, Yadav caught the unidentified man stealing from a parked tractor. He thrashed the man to death on the spot and later dumped his body in Noida. The victim was subsequently identified as Anil Kumar (40) a resident of Khoda.ACP (Indirapuram) Abhishek Srivastava said that an FIR was initially registered at Sector 20 police station under sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders) of the BNS. The case was later transferred to Khoda police once it was established the crime took place there.Yadav was arrested on Sunday, and the car used in the crime was recovered from his possession.