Noida teenager murder: 2 held after encounter, third elsewhere

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Three suspects allegedly involved in the murder of a Greater Noida-based businessman's teenage son were arrested on Wednesday, police said. Two of them were held in the night after a gunfight with the police in which one of them received a bullet wound, they said. Police said the encounter took place near the Dadha roundabout when the accused, who were on their way to destroy evidence related to the crime, were intercepted on the basis of a tip-off. Both the accused were known to Kunal Sharma, 14, who was found dead along the Gang Canal in adjoining Bulandshahr district on Sunday, five days after he went missing from outside the restaurant run by his father Krishna Kumar Sharma in Greater Noida's Beta 2 area.

"Officials of Beta 2 Police Station and the SWAT team were continuously working on the case. Today we got an information that the accused are in a car and on their way to dispose evidence related to the case," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Saad Miya Khan said. "We were carrying out combing operation in the wake of the information and in the evening, we held the two suspects after an encounter. During the gunfight, accused Kunal (Bhati) suffered injuries. His friend Himanshu (Singh Chaudhary) was also arrested," Khan said.

The officer said the two had a dispute with the teen over a money deal. A third named Manoj has also been arrested in connection with the case, Khan said, adding, a fourth, a woman, is yet to be held. "Prime facie, the interest money of the financial deal between the deceased teenager and the accused and also the control of the restaurant of the victim have emerged as the point of conflict in the case," Khan said Sharma, who runs 'Shiva Da Dhaba,' had lodged a missing person's complaint at the local Beta 2 Police Station on May 1 after a woman came to the eatery and called his son. Police lodged an FIR under IPC section 363 (missing person) against unidentified persons the same night and launched an investigation. The FIR was later converted to IPC 364.

A CCTV footage that surfaced on social media purportedly showed the boy walking to a car and sitting inside it on his own. On Monday, the in-charge of the Beta 2 Police Station in Greater Noida was shunted and a departmental inquiry initiated in the case. An explanation has been sought from the assistant commissioner of police of the area, officials said. BJP leader and Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh also shot off a letter to the UP government, demanding a high level probe into the whole episode.

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