BSP leader murder: Car owner in judicial custody till Apr 25

, Apr 11: One of the accused in local BSP leader

murder case was today remanded in two weeks' judicial custody by a Delhi court after the police said he was no more required for custodial interrogation.

Rakesh, the owner of the car in which the two alleged shooters Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann had gone to the farm house of 62-year-old Bhardwaj to kill him on March 26, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma after expiry of his 10-day police custody. The court remanded Rakesh, who was the first person to be arrested, in judicial custody till April 25.

The police had said that Rakesh was a key link in the entire conspiracy which led to the murder. Rana and Mann along with Amit, who was allegedly driving the car, will be produced in the court tomorrow after expiry of their custodial interrogation.

The police had on April 9 arrested Bhardwaj's younger son Nitesh and lawyer Baljeet Singh Shehrawat and they are presently in police custody till April 16. Nitesh and Sehrawat were arrested, two weeks after Bhardwaj was shot dead in the farmhouse, which is named after Nitesh, in south Delhi's Rajokri allegedly by Rana and Mann who are already under arrest.

Police has alleged that Nitesh, 31, had given a Rs five crore contract to Shehrawat, 51, who in turn had entrusted the job to a self-styled godman Pratibhanand. Pratibhanand is still absconding. It had said that while Nitesh wanted to avenge the insult heaped on him by his father by not allowing him to enter the farmhouse and making clear his intention not to give a proper share of property, the lawyer wanted funding for contesting election. It said Nitesh was peeved at his father, the richest candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with declared assets of over Rs 600 crore, who lived separately after problems arose in the family some years ago.

PTI