Bengaluru: Masked men use noise from Diwali crackers as cover to shoot dead businessman

Bengaluru: A 50-year-old real estate businessman was shot dead near his house on Diwali night by two unidentified assailants, police said on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_2394970” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “Surendra Kumar was shot from a close range around 10 pm on Sunday by the masked assailants who came on a motorbike and fled from the spot in the cover of darkness and noise from bursting fire crackers,” Additional Commissioner of Police KSR Charan Reddy told IANS. As a bleeding Kumar collapsed at the gate of his house in upscale Sanjay Nagar, his car driver and another employee rushed him to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead. “An FIR has been registered under section 302 of the IPC and the Arms Act on a complaint filed by the employee who witnessed the incident along with the driver. We have set up multiple teams to investigate the case and hunt down the killers,” said Reddy. Kumar, a bachelor, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur, was living in the city since 2000 and was involved in various business activities, including real estate and property development. He was returning home after celebrating Diwali with his staff in his farmhouse at Devanahalli and his nearby office when he was attacked. “We are investigating the incident from all angles. Preliminary inquiry hints at business rivalry or a financial deal going awry. Our priority is to first nab the killers to crack the case,” said Reddy. Kumar’s lawyer Vinod K, however, told reporters that Kumar’s former employee Kapil Saraswat was the prime suspect. “He had threatened to kill Kumar for filing a cheating complaint, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment in Mathura jail (in Uttar Pradesh) early this year,” said Vinod. Saraswat is reported to have borrowed Rs 3 crore from Kumar to purchase prime land in Uttar Pradesh but failed to return the money. “Kapil’s brothers also came to Bengluru recently and threatened Kumar of serious consequences if he did not withdraw his complaint,” alleged Vinod.