New Delhi, April 9: Nitesh Bhardwaj, the younger son of Delhi’s slain real estate tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj, and lawyer Baljit Singh Sehrawat were today arrested for hatching the conspiracy to murder the builder-turned-politician on March 26.
Delhi deputy commissioner of police, south, Chhaya Sharma, today unveiled the intricate network of people involved in the crime. While Nitesh, 36, had given the supari to Baljeet, the lawyer outsourced it to a godman, Swami Pratibhanand. The godman then handed out the contract to his driver, Puroshottam Rana, who in turn enlisted the help of Sunil Mann and Rakesh Sharma to accompany him to the farmhouse to carry out the killing.
The entire deal was struck for Rs 5 crore.
“Nitesh told us that he was disturbed by the attitude of his father towards him and the family. He was not even allowed access to the farmhouse where Bhardwaj was later killed. Five-six months ago, he decided to get rid of his father,” DCP Sharma said.
Sources said that during sustained interrogation in the last 24 hours leading up to his arrest, Nitesh could not control his anger and confessed to have given out the supari for his father’s murder. Sources said Nitesh told the police that his father deserved to be murdered, as he himself stayed in a 30-acre farmhouse, while he told his mother and son that they should not aspire for any other property except Shiksha Bharati School and a flat in Nav Sansad Apartment.
Nitesh alleged that his father was in a relationship with a woman 35 years younger than him, and there was a danger of him giving property worth over thousands of crores to the lady.
The police also revealed that the godman took the supari because of his desire to have his own ashram in Haridwar — a plan that was being scuttled by the senior Bharadwaj, who refused to lend him money for the project. Sources revealed that the police suspected the godman after they found out that he had been scouting locations in Haridwar, Solan and Karnal for his ashram, which he intended to set up with the supari money.
DCP Sharma said the swami is still absconding and police teams are on his lookout. Sources indicated the Swami may have fled to Calcutta or some other eastern city.
So far, Rs 30 lakh in cash, two country-made weapons and three vehicles have been recovered, Sharma said.
The two country-made weapons were recovered from Charkhi Dadri canal near Rohtak after the water supply was closed for two days.
Police believe it was Baljit who was Nitesh’s eyes and ears inside the farmhouse premises and who kept the assault team apprised of Bharadwaj’s schedule through the day.
Baljit, who earlier worked as a commission agent in a few property deals with Bhardwaj senior, was the only one in touch with him at the time of the murder. He agreed to be part of the plot to collect money to contest the election from Mahipalpur Assembly seat in South West Delhi.
The two killers, according to police sources, decided to kill Bhardwaj when he was out of Delhi at the behest of the others who didn’t want to take any chances in the capital. In fact they tried to kill Bhardwaj once in Haridwar, but failed.
When Nitesh came to know in January that his father had no plans to move out of Delhi for the next two months, he decided to kill him in the capital itself.
