Deepak Bhardwaj murder: Hired shooters try to surrender, arrested

The shooters hired to murder real estate tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj had been quietly moving towards the Patiala House Courts to surrender before a magistrate in separate vehicles when the police pounced upon them. Jatin Anand reports.

The shooters hired to murder real estate tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj had been quietly moving towards the Patiala House Courts to surrender before a magistrate in separate vehicles when the police pounced upon them.

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The dramatic assassination of Bhardwaj — a BSP leader and the richest candidate in 2009 LS polls — decided to surrender after unprecedented pressure by the police to arrest them.

“We had started intensifying raids in and around their hideouts over the last three days and had learnt that they were planning to surrender today,” said an officer from the crime branch.

However, Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann got wind of the fact that the police was trailing them, leading to high drama.

While Rana’s vehicle was intercepted before entering the court, Mann managed to evade a waiting police team.

“Mann, however, managed to evade the waiting police team and entered a court room but the judge refused to hear the matter and handed him over to us. Rana was intercepted before he could enter and handed over to us at the spot,” the officer said.

Mann managed to enter Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma’s courtroom but the judge refused to hear the matter and directed the police to take him outside.

“Is this the way you behave in a court room? Don’t you know that the accused is charged in a murder case under section 302 IPC. I will not take up the matter today. Take the accused out of the court room,” the magistrate instructed.

According to sources, Rana, the man who accepted and planned the hit, had last been located in Narela.

It was learnt that he had contacted a lawyer practising at the Rohini district courts to help him and Mann surrender. Sources said they were wary of the heat the case had generated.