Ghaziabad: An 80-year-old was tortured, gagged with towel and murdered in his own house at Uttranchal Vihar Colony in Loni Border on Wednesday. The body was found on the ground floor and the victim’s feet and hands were tied with a rope. Police suspect that he was assaulted first and then his throat was slit.Ramesh Chandra Sharma is a widower who lived in a three-storey house in A Block of the colony with his two sons — Vikas and Gaurav. His elder son, Vikas, has been separated from his wife for nearly 10 years and works at a loan consultancy firm, while Gaurav is unmarried and works at a private company in Chawri Bazar in Delhi.On Wednesday, Gaurav left for work as usual and Vikas left his father at home around 2.30pm as he had some errands in Delhi. When he returned at 7.30pm, he found the front door of the house was locked. Despite calling his father multiple times, he did not pick up the call. He went to the back of the house and found the door ajar. “When I entered the house, I found my father lying in a blood-soaked condition in a room on the ground floor. I lifted him in my arms and rushed to the hospital, but doctors declared him dead,” he told police. “My father has been assaulted and murdered by an unknown person. I have also checked the house and there has been no theft.”DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said the body has been sent for autopsy and reports are awaited. He said the victim’s feet were bound with a clothesline rope and the accused put a towel inside his mouth so that neighbours could not hear his screams. The forensic team has collected fingerprints from the scene. Some items in the house were found in disarray, but no information about anything going missing has been received so far. Therefore, the police have ruled out the robbery angle.“At the time of the murder, Ramesh was alone at home. The main gate was locked from inside but the back door was found open. We suspect that the accused entered through the main gate and fled through the back door. Initial investigation points to the possibility of a murder motivated by personal enmity. The accused must have been known to the victim,” a senior police officer aware of the investigation said.Police have registered a case of murder against unidentified persons. They are questioning family members and examining CCTV footage for leads.
