Son, lawyer arrested for murder of businessman

IANS/New Delhi

The son of billionaire politician Deepak Bhardwaj has been arrested for his father’s murder along with a lawyer here, police said yesterday.

Nitesh Bhardwaj, 36, is the Bahujan Samaj Party leader’s younger son.

Nitesh and Baljeet Singh Sehrawat, 51, were arrested for the March 26 murder of Deepak Bhardwaj at his sprawling south Delhi farmhouse.

“We had detained Nitesh on Sunday for questioning and arrested him around 2pm when he revealed his involvement,” said a police officer.

With this, six people have been arrested for their involvement in the murder.

Bhardwaj was gunned down by hired killers Sunil Mann alias Sonu and Purushottam Rana alias Monu at his 35-acre farmhouse ‘The Nitesh’ in south Delhi.

They were arrested with Amit, the driver of a Skoda car used in the crime.

Rakesh alias Bhola, the owner of the car used by the killers, has also been arrested.

“Nitesh had given a Rs5 crore (Rs50mn) contract to Baljeet. Nitesh gave Baljeet an advance of Rs50 lakh (Rs5mn). The remaining amount was to be paid after the murder,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma said.

“Baljeet then gave a contract of Rs2 crore to Swami Pratibhanand, who approached shooters to kill Bhardwaj. Baljeet gave an advance of Rs3.50-4 lakh to Pratibhanand,” Sharma added.

According to Sharma, Pratibhanand contacted the shooters Purushottam and Sunil and promised them Rs10mn after the murder.

“The shooters got Rs2 lakh, which was used to arrange the car, weapons and ammunition for the murder,” Sharma said.

The conspiracy was hatched by Nitesh and Baljeet in January.

“Baljeet had told Nitesh that he would contest the assembly elections from Delhi’s Mahipalpur seat. Initially, he asked Nitesh to bear his expenses for the polls, but later asked for Rs5 crore,” Sharma said.

Deepak Bhardwaj was one of the richest candidates for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and had declared assets worth Rs6bn.

According to the police Nitesh hatched the conspiracy after his father threatened to prevent him from entering the farmhouse following a dispute between them.

“The exact reason behind the killing is yet to come out. But Nitesh was stressed over the threat by his father,” said a police officer.

Police have not ruled out the involvement of other family members in the murder. Investigators have also questioned Deepak Bharadwaj’s wife Ramesh Kumari and elder son Hitesh.

According to Sharma, Nitesh was changing his statements regularly.

“Just after the killing, he broke his mobile phone and SIM card with which he was in contact with Sehrawat and Pratibhanand,” said an investigating officer.

Police said Nitesh had been their prime suspect since the day of the killing. Following Sehrawat’s detention, police confronted the duo, which led to the revelation of the conspiracy.

At Rs50mn, it was one the biggest contract conspiracies in the capital’s history, the police said.