Ex-Tech Mahindra executive shot 15 times by neighbour in Faridabad, had come home for Diwali

Police say the suspect fired multiple rounds and was arrested the next day. Relatives say the families had argued over a dog and parking-related issues.

A 43-year-old software company executive who lived in Singapore was allegedly shot dead by a neighbour at his Faridabad family residence late on Friday, with the assailant firing 15-19 rounds that left the victim dead at the spot.

The victim was identified as Paramjith Dhankhar, 43, who was employed by Vietnam-based FPT Software Company Limited at its Singapore office and was visiting his family for Diwali. He was previously a senior executive at Indian tech firm Tech Mahindra.

The suspect was identified as 42-year-old Mohan Sharma, a contractor and scrap-processing businessman. He was arrested from Ballabgarh on Saturday and his licensed handgun, with 59 live cartridges kept inside the bag used for storing the weapon, and two magazines—one of which was partially loaded—were recovered, police said.

The two men lived on different floors of four-storey building in Faridabad’s Sector 21C.

Relatives of the victim said that the two families had been embroiled in a dispute for the past three months over the Sharma’s German Shepherd pup defecating in the parking on the ground floor, following which Dhankhar’s family had filed a police complaint. “A week ago, Sharma had broken one of the three stilt entrance gates Dhankhar had constructed to avoid a dispute. He had filed a police complaint,” a relative, requesting anonymity, said.

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Dhankhar is survived by his parents, wife and two children—a 14-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son— who lived in the same building. The suspect’s family lived on the second floor, police said.

On Friday morning, police had summoned Sharma to the Ankhir police post on Dhankhar’s complaint. In the complaint, Dhankhar’s family had alleged verbal abuse and damage to the entrance gate for objecting to the pup defecating in the parking lot, including over the opening of the underground water tank.

“My cousin also reached there. I had got to know from my brother that Sharma had misbehaved with the police too inside the station. He issued there that he would teach him a lesson,” the relative said.

Around 8.30pm, Sharma asked Dhankhar to come to the parking lot and move his car, after saying that the issue was resolved and he didn’t want any more conflict, another relative said. As soon as he went downstairs, he was shot dead, the family said.

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A senior police officer privy to the investigation, said that Dhankhar tried to save himself but Sharma opened fire at close range. “He emptied one magazine and then loaded another one and emptied it too. Overall, he had fired at least 19 rounds, with at least nine hitting Dhankhar. There were multiple bullet marks on Dhankhar’s Mahindra XUV 7XO, floor and walls of the stilt area,” the officer said.

An FIR was filed, naming Sharma, his wife and two children under sections 103 (1) (murder), 109(1) (attempt to murder), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 3(5) (common intention) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Surajkund police station on Saturday.

Pinta Ram, an eyewitness, who lives on the first floor, said he heard multiple loud bangs in quick succession. “Within seconds, we all heard screams and rushed downstairs to find that Sharma had shot Dhankhar dead,” he said.

Ram said they rushed him to a private hospital, but doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Varun Kumar Dahiya, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said Sharma was arrested from Dealer Chowk in Ballabagarh. “He will be taken on police remand. His wife and children have also been made accused for criminal conspiracy but were yet to be arrested,” Dewan said.

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Family members and police said that Sharma probably planned to murder Dhankhar, since he had gone downstairs with the handgun and two loaded magazines. “When we reached the spot, the handgun holster, pistol and two magazines were recovered from the stilt area by police,” Manuj Bajaj, Dhankhar’s close friend, told HT.

The family said that Dhankhar had also planned to attend a nephew’s wedding in Faridabad on November 24.

Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More