Delhi Police make first arrest in BSP leader murder case

The Delhi Police on Monday made their first arrest in the BSP leader Deepak Bhardwaj’s murder case. An individual named Purushottam Rana suspected to be one of the shooters in the case, has been arrested by the Delhi Police crime branch. According to a report in The Hindu, the man, 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. [caption id=“attachment_680672” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Deepak Bhardwaj. IBNLive[/caption] 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 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. He was rushed to Army’s Research and Referral Hospital near Dhaula Kuan in south Delhi where he succumbed to the injuries.