Ghaziabad: A retired head constable with Uttar Pradesh police was allegedly shot dead by unidentified assailants, a few meters away from his house, in Loni area of Ghaziabad on early Monday morning. Victim's family suspects a property dispute to be a fallout of murder. According to police, Shabbir Hussain Zaidi (55), a native of Saharanpur district but lived in Uttaranchal Vihar colony, was shot dead during his morning walk.
"The incident occurred around 6:30 am on Monday. Through the footage fetched from a nearby CCTV camera, we saw a white sedan car stopping in front of Zaidi, while a few men stepped out of the car and started firing at Zaidi. He even tried to run away but the assailants fired around nine rounds of bullet out of which six hit him in chest and back" said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, Superintendent of Police (rural), Ghaziabad.
The officer further said that they are trying to identify the accused persons through the CCTV footage while a case in the matter has been registered.
"We are trying to identify the criminals with the help of victim's family and local people. Meanwhile, an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (punishment for murder) has been registered on the complaint filed by victim's family" added Jadaun.
As per victim's family, Zaidi had been receiving threat calls from an unknown person over some property dispute from past couple of months. They suspect them to have murdered him.
A senior police officer informed that Zaidi took voluntary retirement from UP police in 2003 and was a property dealer. He had also been into politics and had joined Bahujan Samaj Party in 2005. Zaidi also fought the nagar palika election in Loni with the party's support.