Ghaziabad residents block highway to protest double murder

GHAZIABAD - Angry Ghaziabad residents blocked the Delhi-Dehradun National Highway-58 for over an hour near the Nand Gram area Monday to protest the murder of two youths, police said.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police Raghubir Lal, the two - Farooq, 23 and Nabi, 15, residing in Bombay Colony in Nand Gram, were murdered by seven people of the same colony.

“On April 1, Mahesh Pal, a local resident, booked a tractor to bring some goods of Shyam Singh from Ratol in Baghpat to Ghaziabad. The seven - Pal, Intezar, Sunnu, Rahul, Shahnawaz, Sajid and Sabir took along Farooq and Nabi. Near the Loni pushta, the seven got drunk and assaulted the two,” Lal told.

“They strangulated and stabbed them and dumped the bodies in a wheat field in Roshanpur,” he said.

“Though the accused claim they had some earlier rivalry with the two over the tractor, we believe the murder was carried out with an intention to loot,” said Lal.

Pal, Intezar, Sunnu, and Rahul have been arrested while the others are absconding.

Lal said that 250 people had blocked the highway Monday in protest.

“A case was registered against the people involved in the blockade. They would be arrested soon,” the SSP said.