Two suspected killers of BSP leader Bhardwaj arrested

Two suspected killers of local Bahujan Samaj Party leader Deepak Bhardwaj were arrested on Monday amid high drama when they came to surrender with one of them being caught before he could enter a court in New Delhi.

Purushottam Rana was apprehended from outside Patiala House court complex Monday morning but his accomplice Sunil Mann managed to evade the waiting police and entered a court room but the judge refused to hear the matter and handed him over to the police.

Bhardwaj, 62, who was the richest candidate in the last Lok Sabha elections, was shot dead allegedly by three men, including Rana, at his farmhouse in south Delhi's Rajokri on March 26.

A third person, who is suspected to have been driven the car used by the shooters to flee from Bhardwaj's farmhouse, was detained on Sunday.

"We have arrested Rana," Ravindra Yadav, additional commissioner of police (crime), told PTI.

Police sources said they had a tip off about the possible surrender but they could manage to catch Rana only.

At Patiala House court complex, Mann managed to enter Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma's court to surrender but the judge refused to hear the matter and directed the Delhi Police Crime Branch officials, who were present there, to take the accused out of the court room.

The magistrate was angry with the conduct of the persons who were accompanying Mann and said he would not hear the matter.

"Is this the way you behave in 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 said.

As the police officials took the accused outside the court room, a ruckus was created by the persons who were accompanying Mann and the police had to struggle to put him inside their vehicle.

The police had issued lookout circulars against the two suspected shooters -- Rana and Mann.

Police have questioned Bhardwaj's wife Ramesh Kumari and sons and his staff in the past few days, with investigators saying that property or money was the reason for the murder.

Investigators are also looking into the role of an insider who might have tipped off the killers about the movement of Bhardwaj and the topography of the farmhouse.

Around 40 employees were inside the around 25 acre farmhouse at the time of the incident. However, the two personal security officers of Bhardwaj were not with him or inside the farmhouse at the time of the incident.