BSP leader's murder: Son, lawyer sent to 6 day custody

The younger son of real estate tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj and a lawyer, arrested for their alleged role in his sensational murder, were on Wednesday remanded to six days in police custody by a Delhi court.

Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma remanded Nitesh, son of local Bahuajn Samaj Party leader Bhardwaj, and lawyer Baljeet Singh Shehrawat in police custody till April 16.

Both Nitesh, 31, and Sehrawat, 51, were arrested Tuesday and the police has alleged that Nitesh had given a Rs 5 crore contract to Shehrawat who in turn had entrusted the job to a self-styled godman Pratibhanand. Pratibhanand is absconding.

"The accused persons were arrested on April 9. Allegations against them are serious in nature. Investigation is still at a nascent stage," the court noted.

"It is specified in the application that co-accused persons have to be traced, SIM cards used by the accused persons have to be unearthed, amounts involved in this case have to be recovered, raids on the possible hideouts of co-accused persons at Dehradun, Solan, Vrindawan and Haridwar have to be made and motives of accused persons have to be investigated vis-a-vis their criminal conspiracy in offence in question.

"The said aspects of this case need detailed investigation. Therefore, the present application moved by the investigating officer is allowed. Accused persons, namely Nitesh and Baljeet Singh, are sent to six days police custody remand," the magistrate said.

Seeking six days police remand of both the accused, the police said the investigation in the case is at an initial stage and they needed to interrogate them to establish the chain of events which led to the crime.

Image: Deepak Bharadwaj