Ghaziabad: The body of a 42-year-old hardware trader was found with multiple stab wounds in a forest in Mandola on Monday. Vinod Gupta, a Loni resident, had not returned home from his shop on Sunday evening.According to police, a buffalo herder found the body dumped in the forest area around 10am on Monday and informed the police via the emergency helpline 112. Police, along with a forensic team, reached the spot and sent the body for an autopsy. The results are awaited, police said, adding that the man appeared to have been stabbed multiple times with a sharp object.DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said that Gupta had been missing since Sunday evening. His family told cops that he had left after closing shop that evening with an unidentified person and had not been seen or heard from since. On Monday, family members approached police to file a missing person complaint.“Police suspect that he was murdered elsewhere and the accused dumped the body in the forest later. Gupta’s phone is also missing. We formed five teams to investigate the case and have detained some people. Police are also checking the CCTV footage of the area as well,” the DCP said.An FIR is being registered in the case, police added.
