india

Updated: Jul 29, 2019 16:20 IST

Days after a meat trader was gunned down inside his car at a traffic signal on the busy Rohtak Road in Punjabi bagh, the police on Monday said they have caught the killer.

But the alleged killer, Arif alias Ikram, has told his interrogators that he and his associates had missed their target and ended up killing his brother instead.

“Arif was in an ongoing tussle with a meat trader named Raees Qureshi. Raees and his brother Salim (also a meat trader) were travelling in a car when the motorcycle-borne assailants opened fire on July 18. They intended to kill Raees, but ended up shooting dead his brother Raees instead,” said an officer of the special cell.

While it was a business rivalry that led to the murder, the police said that Arif was involved in a host of other crimes previously. “He has 35 cases against him, including crimes like murder, extortion and robbery,” said Manishi Chandra, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).

The local police had earlier identified Arif as a suspect after analysing CCTV footage several hundred metres from the murder spot.