Greater Noida: A 55-year-old man fast asleep on a cot in the porch of his house in Greater Noida’s Devla village was allegedly shot dead by assailants on Friday night.Police and family members suspect that Mahendra Bhati could have been killed in a revenge attack as his son was involved in the murder of their neighbour some 16 months ago.Mahendra’s son Kapil and his friend Akash were arrested in September 2017 for allegedly planning the murder of Veerendra (32) in connivance with the latter’s wife Ramesh (28) whom he was allegedly involved in an extra-marital affair, ever since the couple had shifted to Devla about eight years back.According to Mahendra’s father Rampal Singh (94), who was sleeping on another cot in the porch of the house, around 9.45 pm he suddenly heard around two to three gunshots. “When I got up, I saw my son bleeding. The assailants had reached the porch by jumping over the wall of the main gate and fled taking advantage of the dark. I could not identify them,” he told TOI.However, there was another person, named Raghuraj, who had been sleeping on another cot in the porch. Rampal said that Raghuraj was drunk before falling to sleep and he woke him up.From what Rampal could make out, it seemed that the assailants did not use a vehicle to reach the spot and were on foot, at least for some distance. Raj Kumar, a labourer who stays in the adjoining house, said that as soon as the gunshots were heard, the villagers rushed out of their homes. The accused allegedly had arrived after crossing the wall of the main gate and used the same route to exit, given that bloodstains were found on an electrical wire connected with a pillar outside the gate.While police were informed late in the night, a forensic team reached the spot on Saturday afternoon and gathered clues related to the murder.Mahendra’s elder brother Rishipal Bhati said, “Ramesh has been staying at her parents’ home in Kadarpur in Haryana. We suspect that she could be behind the murder. Veerendra's younger brother Rajveer could also be involved.”Meanwhile, police also did not rule out a revenge attack over an old dispute. “We are probing the case from different angles, including the old dispute. Apart from the deceased’s father, there was another person sleeping outside,” circle officer I Nishank Sharma told TOI.

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