A shocking and gruesome case has surfaced from Budana village under the Modinagar police station area of Ghaziabad, where a son shot his own father dead with the father's own pistol at around midnight on Wednesday. After emptying multiple rounds into his father, the accused son fled the scene, leaving behind a family shattered by grief. News of the killing spread quickly and sent shockwaves through the entire area, prompting police officers to rush in with a large force to secure the spot.
DCP Dehat Surendra Nath Tiwari and ACP Modinagar Bhaskar Verma reached the spot and launched an investigation into the case. Police have taken the body into custody and sent it for a postmortem examination to determine the exact cause of death and the precise number of bullets that struck the victim's body.
A Rs 150 crore estate at the heart of the dispute
Police identified the deceased as 52 year old Hariom Chaudhary, who was known in the area as a well off and prosperous farmer. He owned nearly 75 bigha of agricultural land, along with a large market on the Delhi Meerut Road directly opposite Jeevan Hospital. Police estimate that the combined value of the land and the market runs to about Rs 150 crore. Hariom is survived by his wife Anita, his elder son Nikhil Nehra and his younger son Nishu.
Even after shops and land were handed over, the demand did not stop
ACP Bhaskar Verma said the elder son Nikhil had long been addicted to heavy drinking, which frequently triggered clashes inside the household. Hariom had already transferred some shops in the market and 25 bigha of land to Nikhil's name, but Nikhil was still insisting that the rest of the family property be signed over to him entirely. Hariom feared that Nikhil's drinking habit and erratic behaviour could lead him to sell off even that land and squander it, and this fear was the root of the recurring friction between father and son.
A scolding over his drinking set off the fatal outburst
On Wednesday night, Hariom had dinner with his wife Anita and younger son Nishu. Nikhil was not home at the time. Late at night, when Nikhil returned home visibly drunk and unsteady on his feet, his father scolded him over his drinking. That single rebuke was enough to send Nikhil into a rage, and he pulled out the pistol kept at home. His mother Anita and younger brother Nishu tried to intervene and separate the two, but during the scuffle that followed, Nikhil fired directly at his father.
Bullets tore through the face, chest and body
The first bullet struck Hariom in the face, and he collapsed to the ground instantly. Even after his father fell, Nikhil's anger did not subside, and he fired another four to six rounds into his father's face, chest and private parts in quick succession as he lay on the ground. The sheer volume of gunfire killed Hariom on the spot, before anyone could intervene further.
He had fired on his younger brother eight years earlier too
The police investigation has revealed that Nikhil has a violent and criminal history stretching back years. Back in 2018, he had opened fire on his own younger brother Nishu in a similarly murderous attack, in which Nishu was struck by one bullet. Police are now also examining which friends Nikhil had been drinking with in Modinagar just before the killing, and whose name the pistol used in the murder was registered under, since the weapon appears to have belonged to the father himself.
Four police teams hunting for the fugitive son
Police have registered a case based on a written complaint filed by the victim's family. To track down the fugitive Nikhil, police have formed four separate teams that are conducting raids at his likely hideouts across the region. Police officials claim the accused will be arrested soon. A similar case had earlier come to light in Hapur, where a son shot his father dead during a dispute over a piece of land, underlining how property disputes within families continue to turn deadly.
