Deepak Bhardwaj murder case: Delhi Police arrest two, suspicion on family

The Delhi Police on Monday made their first arrest in the BSP leader Deepak Bhardwaj’s murder case. Purushottam Rana, suspected to be one of the gunmen in the case, was arrested outside the Patiala Court Complex in New Delhi by the crime branch. Another accused, Sunil Mann, managed to escape and surrendered in court. [caption id=“attachment_680830” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BSP leader Deepak Bhardwaj. IBNLive[/caption] According to a report by Times of India, the Delhi Police got a tip off about their plans to surrender and laid a trap at the Patiala court complex as well as other courts in the city. The Hindu reported that another accused, suspected of having driven the accused to Bhardwaj’s residence, was detained from Delhi and police suspect that the reason behind the murder was a financial dispute over the BSP leader’s wealth, estimated at around Rs 600 crore. The police suspect the amount paid to the killers would be large due to the fact that a luxury car was bought to ferry the killers to Bhardwaj’s residence and they had also issued notices to airports seeking the detention of two suspects one of which was Purushottam Rana. The police have also questioned Bhardwaj’s wife and son as part of the investigations into whether anyone known to the businessman had any grudge against him. According to CNN-IBN sources, the needle of suspicion is on the Bhardwaj’s family members. Bharadwaj, the richest candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls with declared assets of over Rs 600 crore, was fired upon from point blank range by three men who fled after the incident. He was gunned down by the trio who entered his farmhouse in Rajokri at 8:55 am on the pretext of booking the place for a marriage, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar had told reporters in New Delhi. The assailants of the BSP leader, who was into education, hotel and real estate businesses and had declared assets worth over Rs 600 crore in 2009, had come in a dark grey Skoda car to the farmhouse. He had suffered bullet injuries on his chest and back and slumped bleeding heavily. He was rushed to Army’s Research and Referral Hospital near Dhaula Kuan in south Delhi where he succumbed to the injuries.