Ghaziabad: A 17-year-old boy was shot dead at an under-construction building in Sahibabad on Sunday after a guard allegedly suspected him of trying to steal iron rods from the site. The boy’s family, however, claimed he had gone there to shoot a Reel with a mobile phone bought just two days earlier.Police said the shooting took place at an under-construction building of Parsvnath Developers near the boy’s house in Arthala. The guard, identified as Vivek Yadav, was detained and his licensed gun seized. But no FIR was registered till late on Sunday evening.The boy’s elder brother, Yusuf, said the teenager had been working as a welder with a contractor in Lucknow. When work slowed after the beginning of Sawan, he had returned home on a month-long break. He started work at a chicken shop, which, too, was shut for the holy month. Since then, he had been driving a bike taxi to augment his income.On Sunday morning, Yusuf said, his brother returned home around 11.30am. Soon after, a teenager from the neighbourhood told him that his brother had been shot at the construction site. Yusuf rushed there with his cousin Faheem.“I raised an alarm when I saw four persons beating my brother. They shot him and fled,” Yusuf alleged. He took his brother on a bike to MMG Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.Yusuf alleged that the teenager had gone to the site to shoot a Reel after getting his new phone. He said he later found several videos shot at the construction site on the phone.Police said preliminary inquiry suggested the guard had fired the shot. ACP (Sahibabad) Amit Saxena said, “The guard told us that some youths were stealing iron rods and other material from the site, and that he fired to scare them.”Yadav was taken into custody for questioning. “We are investigating the case from all angles. A case will be registered under relevant sections of the BNS on the basis of a complaint,” Saxena said.
