Even as the investigators sweat hard in tracing the absconding godman, hitherto suspected as the key conspirator behind the murder of billionaire businessman Deepak Bhardwaj, sources said that Abhinav Shastri, an alleged aide of his, has been detained at Indore and questioned about his whereabouts.
It is suspected that Abhinav sheltered the Swami -- who is alleged to have paid both the shooters Purushottam Rana and Sunil Mann – for two days during his decampment. Besides Abhinav, a few others including another self-proclaimed godman, have been detained in the last two days by police teams conducting raids in Indore and Bahadurgarh, said sources.
So far, the police have conducted raids at several places in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh searching for the ‘swami’ and have even issued a look-out circular against him after his name purportedly cropped up during interrogation of Purushottam, his former employee.
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The godman’s arrest is expected to provide some crucial leads into the murder of the 62-year-old realtor who was gunned down at his farmhouse “The Nitesh” on March 26 allegedly by Purushottam and Sunil. While four men, including the two shooters and the man who drove the car in which the alleged assailants went inside the farmhouse, have been arrested, the conspirator(s) are still at large.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bhardwaj’s brother and his uncle were questioned at the Vasant Vihar police station on Friday. It is learnt that the duo was quizzed about the deceased realtor’s property deals.