Family members of Deepak Bhardwaj were once again interrogated for hours by South District Police on Thursday, even as its teams raided over a dozen locations across Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, to apprehend Swami Pratibhanand.
The police have issued a look-out circular against the swami and alerted all airports and ports to prevent him from escaping from the country.
Big time realtor Deepak Bhardwaj was apparently in a dispute with his spiritual guru over a 30-acre tract. Investigators are baffled about this deal and unless the mysterious swami is brought to book, this theory cannot be substantiated.
The disclosure comes from Purushottam Rana, alias Sonu, one of the killers who is now in custody of South District Police. A deal apparently went sour and Pratibhanand hatched the conspiracy to get Bhardwaj murdered.
Sources told The Pioneer that there was a very strong possibility of the elusive swami having escaped to Nepal. The look-out circular was issued on Wednesday on orders of DCP South Chhaya Sharma.
Meanwhile, police also questioned Varanasi-based Anandji Maharaj, who was in regular touch with Bhardwaj and even came to the Rajokri farmhouse soon after the daring killing. Maharaj has a home in Gurgaon and had been in constant touch with the Bahujan Samaj Party leader. he had been summoned by the investigating officer (IO).
Bhardwaj’s two sons Hitesh and Nitesh and his wife Ramesh Kumari were then summoned to Vasant Kunj Police Station and put through a sustained round of questioning. They have been asked to report to the IO on Friday too, as sleuths have detected certain inconsistencies in their statements.
Swami Pratibhanand’s abodes and ashrams in Sholapur of Maharashtra, Vrindavan and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Kankhal in Hardwar district of Uttarakhand, Jhajjar, Panipat, Rohtak and Bahadurgarh of Haryana were raided.
Raids have yielded important documents on several land deals between him and Bhardwaj. Sleuths are trying to identify people who introduced Bhardwaj and Pratibhanand to each other and trying to establish how many land deals were inked between them.
The probe has been caught in a whirlpool of names and the absence of the godman - the face behind the conspiracy - is not helping.
Pratibhanand was a regular at the Hindu Mahasabha office at Mandir Marg in Delhi and investigators have got their hands on scores of his photographs, which have been circulated among the raiding teams.
The fact that Pratibhanand was dealing with Bhardwaj and involvement of Purushottam Rana, who once worked as his driver, led investigators to the swami. His disappearance has bolstered the police theory that he has a major role in the cold-blooded murder of Bhardwaj on February 26.
The DCP South said they were investigating all possible angles and would question more people until the conspiracy was unraveled.