Deepak Bhardwaj's murder: Key suspect in judicial custody till 25 April

New Delhi: One of the accused in local BSP leader Deepak Bhardwaj murder case was today remanded to two weeks’ judicial custody by a Delhi court after the police said he was no more required for custodial interrogation. Rakesh, the owner of the car in which the two alleged shooters Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann had gone to the farm house of 62-year-old Bhardwaj to kill him on 26 March, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma after expiry of his 10-day police custody. The court remanded Rakesh, who was the first person to be arrested, in judicial custody till 25 April. The police had said that Rakesh was a key link in the entire conspiracy which led to the murder. Rana and Mann along with Amit, who was allegedly driving the car, will be produced in the court tomorrow after expiry of their custodial interrogation. The police had on 9 April arrested Bhardwaj’s younger son Nitesh and lawyer Baljeet Singh Shehrawat and they are presently in police custody till 16 April. [caption id=“attachment_695372” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Deepak Bhardwaj in this file photo. IBN-Live[/caption] Nitesh and Sehrawat were arrested, two weeks after Bhardwaj was shot dead in the farmhouse in south Delhi’s Rajokri allegedly by Rana and Mann who are already under arrest. Police has alleged that Nitesh, 31, had given a Rs five crore contract to Shehrawat, 51, who in turn had entrusted the job to a self-styled godman Pratibhanand. Pratibhanand is still absconding. It had said that while Nitesh wanted to avenge the insult heaped on him by his father by not allowing him to enter the farmhouse and making clear his intention not to give a proper share of property, the lawyer wanted funding for contesting election. It said Nitesh was peeved at his father, the richest candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with declared assets of over Rs 600 crore, who lived separately after problems arose in the family some years ago. Police had told the court that there must have been a “strong motive” behind the crime which they are yet to ascertain. The prosecution has sought Shehrawat’s custody to interrogate him to know the whereabouts of the absconding godman and has said he could give important information about him as Pratibhanand used to visit Shehrawat’s house here. Police had said it had to trace the source and trail of the money transacted in the crime. Mann and Rana were arrested on 1 April amid high drama when they had come to Patiala House Court to surrender. While Rana was apprehended by the police just before he was to enter the premises, Mann had managed to evade the waiting police and had entered a court room but the judge refused to hear the matter and handed him over to Delhi Police Crime Branch officials, who were present there. Rana, in his disclosure statement, had said that the main accused in this case is a “swami_ji_”, the police had told the court. It had said that they need to take the accused to Haridwar, Mathura and Jhajjar in Haryana to establish the chain of events which lead to the crime. PTI