A 36-year-old deputy general manager of Woodland Retail was shot dead on Friday morning outside his home at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad while he was returning home after dropping his daughters to school, the police said.
Nitin Sharma, who hails from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and is a resident of Sector 4, Shakti Khand at Indirapuram, returned after leaving his daughters Vanshika, 10, and Anshika, 6, at the Cambridge school nearby when the two assailant pumped bullets at him outside his home leaving neighbours and family members in terror, the police said. The assailants shot 10 rounds and fled the spot in a car.
Victim’s wife Shalini Sharma was standing on the balcony when the assailants gunned him down. She heard her husband saying assailants ‘why are you attacking me and what I have done?’ Sharma rushed down only to find her husband in pool of blood.
Fifteen minutes after the incident his neighbours took out his car and rushed him to Shanti Gopal Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
“Sharma had parked his Suzuki Vitara car outside his home when the two assailants, aged between 20 to 25 years, came close and started firing at him. Nitin tried to take shelter inside the house but bullets followed him. One bullet hit the car and the other a scooter,” Shiv Shankar Yadav, Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad City, said.
An eyewitness said that neighbours came out of their homes after hearing gunshots but nobody tried to nab the assailants, who were brandishing their pistols, walked to a car parked in another lane and fled from the spot.
Hearing about the incident, senior police officials rushed to the spot and hospital. He said that Sharma received six bullet injuries and after post-mortem, the dead body has been given to the family members, who are taking him to his native place for last rites.
A police officer said that it might be case of personal rivalry as he has terminated a few people from the company in recent past.
“It’s too early to say anything concrete about the assailants and their motive behind the murder. We have taken down description of the accused from the family members and neighbours and have informed the neighbouring police stations about the suspects,” said Yadav.
He added that a case has been registered at Indirapuram police station and ‘we are investigating into the matter keeping all options open’.