Ashwini alias Johnny dada, accused of killing three persons in five days in Bijnor, western Uttar Pradesh, killed himself late on Friday night when police cornered him during a bus check, police said.
He shot himself dead when policemen were checking the bus in which he was travelling near the Barhapur police station, the Circle Officer of Nagina, Archana Singh, confirmed.
“A resident of Barhapur, it seems he was returning home. He had covered his face with a handkerchief. When policemen asked him to remove it, he shot himself with a local pistol. He was taken to the government hospital where he died,” said Ms Singh.
The police got to know about his whereabouts on Thursday when CCTV footage revealed that he was eating in a restaurant in Nagina and police teams were put on alert.
Hailing from a modest background, the 30-year-old graduate had no criminal record before September 27, when he shot dead the son and nephew of local BJP leader Bhim Singh Kashyap in broad daylight after he got into a spat with them in Barhapur area.
Killing of woman
Two days later, Ashwini gunned down Nikita Sharma at her residence in Daultabad area of in Bijnor. She was working in Dubai and had come home. The police described it as a case of one-sided love. Nikita had allegedly spurned his proposal almost a decade back. She moved to Dubai and the family members forgot about his overtures. Recently, she returned home and was to get married in December.
The three murders created panic in the region and policemen from 21 police stations were deployed to track him.
The police declared an award of ₹50,000 on him. It was later increased to ₹1 lakh.
Suddenly the son of a clerk became the most wanted man in the area.
Ms Singh described the spat with cousins as “minor”. “They were neighbours and had a minor scuffle in the past well but it was not reported to the police.”
On one of the popular social media applications, Ashwini described himself as the ‘villain’. He was a drug addict, whose behaviour on social media was “violent”, Ms Singh said.
