Mastermind of 2017 arms licence racket shot dead

A 40-year-old man, the alleged mastermind of an arms licence racket that was busted in 2017, was shot dead near New Colony crossing in Gurugram on Tuesday afternoon, police said, adding that the killing is suspected to be a fallout of a financial dispute between two gangs

A 40-year-old man, the alleged mastermind of an arms licence racket that was busted in 2017, was shot dead near New Colony crossing in Gurugram on Tuesday afternoon, police said, adding that the killing is suspected to be a fallout of a financial dispute between two gangs.

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Police identified the dead man as Manish Bhardwaj alias Kale and said Bhardwaj was travelling in a Bolero SUV on Tuesday afternoon, around 3pm, along with two of his associates when one of them shot him in the head and chest three times and both of them fled the scene in another car that was tailing them. Prima facie, it appeared to be a case of premeditated murder, police said.

The fake arms licence racket was busted by the Gurugram police in February 2017. Bhardwaj, the prime accused in the case, was arrested and a large cache of arms and ammunition recovered from his house. According to the police, Bhardwaj and his associates connived with officials of the licensing branch of the Gurugram police to provide arms licences and weapons to several people in Delhi and the National Capital Region for hefty sums of money. Police said Bhardwaj was accused of getting issued more than 500 fake licences. He was also allegedly involved in selling illegal arms after promising buyers that these would be registered later, police said.

Going by an eyewitness statement and preliminary investigations, Sangwan said Sunny Kant, a resident of Krishna Colony, Bhardwaj, and Pramod alias Bablu were travelling together in the Bolero. “Bablu was driving and the three were driving around for almost two hours. When Bhardwaj was about to get down, near where he had parked his scooter, Kant shot him,” he said.

Police said the deputy commissioner of police (west) and his team immediately rushed to the spot along with the crime team, fingerprint team, and dog squad. A case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of Arms Act was registered at New Colony police station, said police, adding that an eyewitness to the murder has recorded his statement .

Sangwan said crime teams are scanning CCTV footage to know the sequence of events.

Police said Kant is a cloth merchant and a resident of Krishna Colony in Gurugram. He was arrested along with Bharadwaj in the arms licence scam and both of them were released on bail in July 2017.

In February 2018, Bhardwaj, while out on bail, had submitted an audio clip to the police in which his wife and mother could be heard negotiating a deal with a Gurgaon police officer to weaken the case against Bhardwaj. In the audio clip, the two sides could allegedly be heard negotiating the exchange of money and the two women purportedly complaining about how police “were always looking to fleece them in lieu of favours”. The face-to-face conversation was allegedly recorded by the women.