Man sleeping in his courtyard shot dead

Ghaziabad (PTI) A 60-year-old man sleeping in the courtyard of his cowshed near his house in Modi Nagar was shot dead, police said on Wednesday.

Anupal Giri's bullet-ridden body was found in a pool of blood on Tuesday morning by his son Amit who went to the cowshed to find about his father who had not come home for breakfast till late in the morning, they said.

The incident occurred in Painga village under Niwari police station in the Modi Nagar area of Ghaziabad.

On being informed of the murder, police reached the spot and sent the body for postmortem after preliminary investigation at the crime spot, the police said.

Rattled at the murder of a villager right inside his house, the villagers questioned the efficacy of police patrolling in the area.

They said the police have failed in checking the crime in the district. They suspected the murder to be the handiwork of some unidentified people noticed during the day in the village.

The villagers said the criminal elements appeared to be doing recce of the village to lift some cattle from the area.

They further said that after targeting Giri's house for lifting the cattle, they would have visited his cowshed in the night and would have shot him dead on facing resistance from him.

Area Circle Officer Sunil Kumar informed the media about the murder nearly 30 hours after the crime on Wednesday afternoon, releasing his video statement in which he said an FIR has been lodged in the incident.