Ghaziabad: Two men in their early 20s were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly shooting dead a 21-year-old biker near Diamond Palace Flyover on November 9 when he resisted their attempt to snatch his sister’s chain.Police said the accused — Nadeem and Sameer — who are from Loni, have confessed that they went on robbing sprees and have so far snatched nearly 1,000 mobile phones from their owners in the past six months.They had also shot a gym trainer in Loni on October 5 when he had resisted their attempt to snatch his mobile phone. The victim, Parvez Saifi, later died in hospital.Nadeem and Sameer were among several men nabbed during routine checking of suspicious vehicles on Tuesday. The two had been apprehended near Meerut Road T-point, along with another friend, who was later identified as Suhail, for not possessing valid documents of an Apache motorcycle that they were riding. Police found six mobile phones from their possession that they had allegedly snatched.“Suhail had accompanied Nadeem and Sameer for the first time on Tuesday. Suhail wanted to buy a winter jacket and the duo promised to take him out, loot a few mobile phones and buy him a jacket. Suhail was unaware that Nadeem and Sameer were behind the murder of 21-year-old Manoj on November 9. Suhail was riding the bike on Tuesday. He told police Nadeem asked him not to take the Diamond Palace Flyover route saying they had opened fire in the area a few days ago. He feared getting caught if they took the route. Nadeem and Sameer have confessed to their crimes,” Ghaziabad SP (City) Shlok Kumar said. Suhail was also arrested and sent to judicial custody along with his two friends. Police are on the lookout for Azad, an accomplice of Nadeem and Sameer, apart from a person identified as Sheru, whom they used to sell the stolen mobile phones.Nadeem told reporters that Azad was also involved in the two murders they had committed. On November 9, Nadeem was riding pillion on a Pulsar being driven by Sameer while Azad was following them on a Passion Pro bike. “Near the Diamond Palace Flyover, we noticed a woman riding pillion on a bike with a mobile phone and a wallet clutched in her hands. When we began snatching the valuables, the man driving the bike resisted. We were drunk and the gun went off accidentally. We fled the spot immediately,” Nadeem said.The biker, Manoj, was hit in the neck and declared dead in a hospital. Police said gym-trainer Parvez Saifi was murdered by Azad and Nadeem when he was on an auto-rickshaw. “We snatched his mobile phone and fled, but the motorcycle suddenly stopped running. The man reached us and tried to snatch his phone back but Azad opened fire at him,” said Nadeem.The two men arrested for the alleged murder of a biker and a gym-trainer in separate incidents have told police they would take a particular route during their robberies. Nadeem lived in Khanna Nagar in Loni while Sameer lived near Dabur Talab.“The two have said that on particular mornings, they would get the tanks of their bikes full, get drunk and begin their snatchings from Loni. They would travel through Sahibabad to Delhi and back to Ghaziabad through NH-24 via Noida. They would snatch at least six to seven phones each day until they returned home in the evening. They claim to have snatched at least a thousand mobile phones from roads over the past six months. They have sold it a person called Sheru in Meerut and another person in Shamli. We are trying to nab these two men so that we can find out how many phones they have in their possession,” Ghaziabad SP (City) Shlok Kumar said.

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