Noida: A real estate businessman who went missing from Greater Noida on Sept 16 was allegedly strangled with a belt after an argument with four men during a drinking session in his car. The accused then allegedly dumped his body in a drain in Bisrakh and fled in his car.Police on Tuesday arrested the four men — Bittu alias Nitin, Nigam Thakur alias Rana alias Harsh, Mohit Das and Irfan — after tracing the Tata Tiago belonging to the victim, Prashant Sharma.Sharma, who lived in Garhi Chaukhandi and ran a real estate business, had an office at Galaxy Diamond in Gaur City. A complaint filed by his family said that Sharma left home around 10 pm on Sept 16. According to cops, his body was found the next morning in a two- to three-foot-deep drain near JM International School under Bisrakh police station. With no identification documents found on him, police registered a case involving an unidentified body and sent it for an autopsy, which cited drowning and asphyxia as the cause of death.The body was identified by his family on Sept 23, two days after Sharma’s son Tushar approached Phase 3 police and lodged a missing person report.According to police, the accused did not know Sharma, but spotted him near Tikona Mor on the night he disappeared. Bittu and Nigam allegedly offered to drop him home after finding him heavily intoxicated and unable to drive. Sharma, they claimed, handed them the car keys, with Bittu taking the wheel and Nigam and their acquaintance Irfan sitting in the rear seat.Instead of taking Sharma home, the accused allegedly drove to his office at Galaxy Diamond. They claimed Sharma led them to his office instead of his home while in a stupor. The men later drove to Gaur City Mall, where Sharma allegedly got into an argument with security guards while intoxicated. The group then left the mall and drove to Parthala village on Sharma’s insistence to buy alcohol. As they sat and drank in the car, the fourth accused, Mohit, joined them.The accused told cops that an argument broke out between them while they were still in the car, following which the men first assaulted Sharma in the rear seat and then Irfan strangled him with a belt. The accused allegedly told police that when Sharma passed out, they assumed he was dead. Fearing arrest, they allegedly drove to Bisrakh and dumped his body in the drain. They then removed and discarded the car’s number plate, apparently to avoid detection through CCTV cameras, before fleeing.ADCP Swatantra Kumar Singh said Sharma’s car had been recovered and all four accused were arrested under BNS sections 103-1 (murder) and 238 (disappearance of evidence) following an intelligence tip. Cops said Sharma may have been alive when the accused threw him into the drain, but drowned and died.Sharma’s family said they had initially not suspected foul play. The family said they had initially believed Sharma would return home after a few days and were unaware that he had been killed. His wife, Madhu Sharma, said the family had lived in Garhi Chaukhandi for around six years and had earlier stayed in New Ashok Nagar, Delhi. Sharma is survived by his wife and three children.
