Corporate honcho killed in UP, cops say ex-workers did it

A senior official of leading company Woodland Retail was on Friday shot dead allegedly by two gunmen at Indirapuram when he was returning home after dropping his daughter in a nearby school.

Nitin Sharma, deputy general manager of the company, was sprayed with a hail of bullets by two youths in their 20s riding a motorcycle in front of his house at Shaktikhand-4 at around 8 am, city SP Shivshankar Yadav said.

Station house officer of Indirapuram police Gorakh Nath Sharma said Nitin Sharma was returning from Cambridge School after dropping his 10-year-old daughter.

"When he got out of his car and reached near the gate of his house, he was shot at," Yadav said, adding 10 bullets were pumped into the body of Sharma -- two in the head and the rest in the chest.

The SHO said the assailants fled from the spot by scaring away a private security guard of a neighbouring house who tried to stop them.

One bullet also hit a Grand Vetra car parked just outside the house, the SHO said.

Sharma was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the two police officials said.

Initial inquiry showed that some time ago Sharma had sacked two youths in his company on the charge of dereliction of duty, the SP said.

The police did not rule out the possibility of their involvement in Sharma's  killing.

Nitin Sharma is survived by his wife Shalini and two daughters.

The police registered a case of murder and sent the body of Sharma for postmortem, the SHO said.

Shalini said in her statement to the police that she heard some bullet shots in the morning at around 8.30 pm as her husband returned after dropping his elder daughter at the sschool and she heard her husband shouting, "Why are you killing me? What is the reason?"

Shalini stated in her statement that she rushed downstairs by which time 10 shots were fired.

She also said the two young men who shot at her husband were in their early 20s.

The victim was living in his house on the second floor for about two years now.

Shalini's cousin Sanjay Sharma said that four months ago, an employee was sacked by Nitin Sharma on the charge of theft in the office and police are looking into this angle.

Sanjay Sharma said Nitin Sharma was a resident of Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh and recently promoted as country head from the post of deputy general manager in Woodland Retail department for the northern region.