Delhi Police on Friday declared a reward of Rs1 lakh for help in the arrest of Swami Pratibhanand, who is suspected to have arranged shooters to kill local BSP leader Deepak Bhardwaj. Pratibhanand (48) is on the run and police have got a non-bailable warrant issued against him in the sensational murder case, a senior police official said. “We have now declared Rs one lakh reward for those who give information about Pratibhanand,” the official said.
Bhardwaj was shot dead in the farmhouse, which is named after Nitesh, in south Delhi’s Rajokri on March 26 allegedly by Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann. The duo escaped in a car owned by one Rakesh and driven by Amit who were arrested. Bhardwaj’s son Nitesh and lawyer Baljeet Singh Shehrawat were arrested on charges of conspiracy in connection with the incident. It was Nitesh who had allegedly roped in Shehrawat, who is “more a property dealer than an advocate”.
Meanwhile, four persons, including the two alleged shooters, accused in real estate tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj’s murder case, were remanded on Friday to three days police custody by a city court after police said it needs their custodial interrogation to unearth the conspiracy.
Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma remanded the four accused to police custody till April 15 saying that the matter is under investigation. “Admittedly, the matter is pending investigation. The places from where co-accused persons have to be traced out are out of Delhi. I have gone through the case diaries and disclosure statements of the accused persons. The said record is signed by me. Keeping in mind the record placed before me, the accused persons who are present before me are sent to police custody for three days till April 15,” the magistrate said.