New Delhi: Investigations into the killing of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Deepak Bhardwaj has revealed that one of the absconding accused and self-styled godman Pratibhanand, who is suspected to have given the murder contract to the shooters, has been changing his appearance and getup to escape and hide from Delhi Police.
According to sources, Pratibhanand is also moving from one place to another and changing his mobile number frequently to dodge the police.
The police have questioned three women friends of Pratibhanand to find out details about his movement. While the police have arrested the shooters, they are yet to apprehend the mastermind. Sources say that nabbing Pratibhanand is proving to be difficult as he is constantly moving from one place to another and changing his appearance.
Sources say Pratibhanand has changed his mobile number 10 times since Bhardwaj's murder on March 26 but he is not using any mobile number for the last few days. They say that police teams are hot on his heels and will be able to arrest him soon. The investigators have already questioned his three women friends including a sadhvi and say that after Bhardwaj's murder Pratibhanand was in contact with only them.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police have identified four more people who could be involved in the murder. The four are likely to be arrested after Pratibhanand is traced and nabbed.
The police have questioned almost 200 people in connection with the case till now and have increased the number of investigating teams to 20 from 10. Raids are being carried out at several places in Haryana, Indore and Kankhal near Haridwar following the information revealed by the arrested shooters.
However, sources say that police have not given a clean chit to the Bhardwaj's family. The police have found during the investigation that one of the accused shooter Purushottam Rana told another shooter Sunil Mann and Amit, owner of the Skoda car, that he had received only Rs 30 lakh for killing Bhardwaj. Sunil Mann and Amit apparently didn't knew that Rs 1 crore was paid to Rana to kill Bhardwaj and not Rs 30 lakh as claimed by him.
Police officials say that Purushottam Rana wanted to keep Rs 70 lakh apart from his share of Rs 10 lakh.
The BSP leader was shot dead in his farmhouse in south Delhi's Rajokri on March 26, 2013 and four persons were arrested in the case. Bhardwaj had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections on a BSP ticket from West Delhi constituency but lost to Congress's Mahabal Mishra. He also ran a school in Dwarka - Shiksha Bharti Public School. Bhardwaj was into education, hotel and real estate business and had declared assets worth around Rs 600 crore in 2009.
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