Mystery of Dehradun businessman murder case deepens with police probing several angles

The mystery of the Arjun Sharma murder case in Dehradun has got deeper with police probing it from several angles, including property disputes, financial transactions and personal relationships. The police are piecing together evidence to unravel the entire sequence of events. Forty-two-year-old Arjun Sharma, a businessman, was shot dead allegedly by two scooter-borne assailants in broad daylight here on Wednesday, the police said, adding that his wife Abhilasha Sharma has alleged her mother-in-law Bina Sharma's role in the incident. Preliminary investigations revealed that Arjun Sharma, owner of Amardeep Gas Agency, was embroiled in a family dispute and his mother had sought protection from the Uttarakhand High Court, citing a threat to her life from the deceased. Abhilasha Sharma submitted a complaint on Wednesday, suspecting four people, including her mother-in-law, of murdering her husband. In the complaint, Abhilasha said Bina Sharma had financial dealings with Vinod Uniyal, his wife Sangeeta Uniyal and Dr Ajay Khanna, owner of SK Memorial Hospital, which her husband Arjun Sharma opposed, and that he had a dispute with her mother over this issue. The police said that based on the complaint, they registered a case. During interrogation, the family members also revealed that the deceased had a dispute with the accused regarding a transaction of about Rs 40-42 crore, the police said. In her complaint, Abhilasha expressed suspicion that these individuals had her husband murdered due to this dispute. According to Dehradun SSP Ajay Singh, the accused are not clearly naming the person from whom they received money to murder Arjun Sharma. No document or call detail record of the named accused has yet been found, the SSP said. Further, the accused are also not revealing the identity of individuals named by Arjun's wife as accused. One of these accused had been working as a driver at the home of Vinod Uniyal, the accused named in the murder case, for the past six months. The police say the accused are not providing clear and accurate information regarding the entire matter. Both accused are originally from Pauri and had settled in Dehradun in 1986. They currently reside in the Chakkhuwala area. One accused was a driver while the other drove an auto-rickshaw. They had no direct enmity or relationship with Arjun Sharma. The SSP said the gun recovered from the accused was borrowed from an acquaintance about five years ago and was never returned. The police have recovered a weapon and the scooter used in the crime from the accused. Dehradun City Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar said the incident occurred around 10.30 am outside a temple in the Tibetan Market, when Arjun Sharma, a resident of Indira Nagar in the Vasant Vihar area, was about to get into his car to go home after playing tennis in the stadium. Kumar said that two assailants on a scooter opened fire on Arjun Sharma. He was taken to Doon Hospital, where he was declared dead.