GHAZIABAD: A 23-year-old man was allegedly bludgeoned to death with a rod by family members and neighbours of a minor girl whose father got to know about their relationship.

The assault took place in Khoda Colony on Thursday.Before his death, the youngster managed to call his brother and said: "Save me, they'll kill me." Police said the girl's father and two others -- his nephew Aman (23) and their neighbour Ranjeet (23) - have been arrested.

They are all residents of Khoda.

Cops were initially told that a thief was caught in the colony around 6.30pm.

A team rushed to Khoda, where they found Parvez unconscious.

He was taken to a city hospital, where doctors declared him dead, DCP (trans-Hindon) Vivek Yadav told TOI on Friday.

Preliminary investigation indicated the case wasn't that of theft.According to police officials, Parvez - a welder - had met the girl, who is from a different community, a year ago in Delhi, and the two began seeing each other.

On Thursday, the 15-year-old girl called him over to her house when her family wasn't around, but her father returned home earlier than expected."The father saw the two of them.

He then called his neighbours Ranjeet and Aman, and the trio locked Parvez inside a room and thrashed him with a rod," a police officer aware of the investigation said.Parvez's family, based in Loni, said he called his younger brother Sameer around 5pm and 5.30pm for help."He left home around 11am and told us that he was meeting some friends.

We didn't know anything more.

Parvez called my younger brother Sameer in the evening and said: 'Save me, they are going to kill me.' That was the last we heard from him," said Mohammad Asif, the youngster's brother.

Asif said the family was informed about Parvez's death in the evening."He was a simple man who was very focused on work...

Even if he was caught with a girl, the family could have handed him over to the police.

Who gave them the authority to beat my brother to death? My brother is gone.

I want justice for him," Asif said.The family filed a complaint against the three accused and an FIR was registered under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

Cops said two teams were formed.

"The girl's father was arrested from the district hospital.

Later, Ranjeet was held from Khoda and Aman was packing his belongings when he was arrested.

We have also recovered the iron rod used to hit Parvez," Yadav said.