New Delhi:
BSP leader
Deepak Bhardwaj might have funded his own murder. The police allege that his younger son Nitesh paid Rs 50 lakh to have him killed, money that belonged to the tycoon, who would often park cash from real estate deals with members of his family.
This was money that the family could not spend; they would have to return it when Mr Bhardwaj asked for it, said the police, who allege that they are fast unravelling a family conspiracy after interrogating Nitesh and Baljeet, his father's lawyer, who have both been arrested.
The two men have allegedly said during interrogation that Mr Bharadwaj's wife Ramesh Kumari was present at a meeting held in January at a school in Delhi's Dwarka, where a self-styled godman Pratibhanand boasted that he could get Deepak Bharadwaj killed. The police say they believe the murder plot was hatched at the school, owned by Mrs Bhardwaj.
The police are yet to ascertain the motive, but say that Mr Bhardwaj's relationship with a woman from Uttarakhand had caused much anxiety in his estranged family of wife and two grown sons. They feared, said the police, that the tycoon would marry the woman and disinherit them.
The police allege that Nitesh gave Baljeet, who is also a property dealer, the Rs 50 lakh with a promise of more after the murder; Baljeet, they say, had demanded Rs five crore. The lawyer allegedly gave Rs 10 lakh to Pratibhanand, who in turn hired two contract killers.
Pratibhanand, still untraced, allegedly paid them Rs four lakh to arrange for a car and guns. The two alleged shooters, Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann, will be produced before a Delhi court today. They were caught on CCTV cameras brandishing guns as they left Mr Bhardwaj's farmhouse in a Skoda car, minutes after he was murdered on March 26.
In the 2009 national elections, Mr Bhardwaj was the richest candidate with assets worth Rs 600 crore. He lost the elections but shot to prominence due to the assets he declared on the affidavit.