Ghaziabad: Nearly three months after the local police in Ghaziabad cremated the body of a 53-year-old man found with fatal head injuries on NH9 as unidentified, the RTO agent was identified by his family following a relentless pursuit, including multiple visits to police stations, and finally as his missing mobile phone was reactivated in Bihar last month.After Surendra Nagar, a resident of Badalpur in Greater Noida, went missing on July 30 night, his son, Vipin, submitted a complaint at the local police station and was informed that his fathers last known location was on NH9 in the Vijay Nagar area.On August 2, he approached Vijay Nagar police station in search of his father. Over the next nearly 90 days, I visited Vijay Nagar police station four to five times, but the cops there failed to share with us that they had cremated an unidentified man who was found in an injured state on the national highway on July 30, Vipin told TOI.According to police, Nagar was mugged and shoved out of a running autorickshaw. He was taken to the MMG Hospital for treatment but died during treatment. The Vijay Nagar police performed his last rites after 72 hours as no one claimed the body. On Wednesday, Shiva, the driver of the autorickshaw — one the man had boarded to travel from Noidas Mamura Chowk to Lal Kuan in Ghaziabad on the night he went missing — was arrested also for snatching his mobile phone and shoving him out of the vehicle on the highway.According to the family, the investigation in the case picked up only in October when Nagars phone was reactivated in Bihars Katihar district. A team from the Badalpur police station went to Bihar to retrieve the phone on October 12 from a person who purchased it from a friend. Vipin claimed the phone was handed over to Ghaziabad police for investigation. On October 24, we were asked to visit the Vijay Nagar police station and shown some clothes and other items. We recognised them right away. It was then the cops told us that they had cremated my father, Vipin said.On October 28, the Nagar family submitted a fresh complaint with Vijay Nagar police, following which an FIR was lodged under IPC sections 392 (robbery) and 302 (murder), ACP Kotwali Nimish Patel said. We have traced Shiva and seized his auto. He told his interrogators that Nagar had boarded his auto in an inebriated state with four others. Shiva snatched his phone and pushed him out of the auto after the other passengers had got down. He later sold the phone for Rs 3,000 to a friend who resold it for Rs 3,500, the ACP said.

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