The police are learnt to have raided several places in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in search of godman Swami Pratimanand whose name cropped up during the interrogation of Purshottam, one of the alleged shooters of realtor Deepak Bhardwaj.
Sources said the police are making several efforts to trace Swami Pratimanand, who, it is alleged, had a property dispute with the murdered businessman over a land parcel in Haryana. However, it is yet to be established whether he was a small cog in the wheel of conspiracy behind the murder or the main conspirator himself.
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“During interrogation Purushottam named Swami and said that he worked as a driver for him,” said a source, adding that the claimed amount paid to Purushottam and another alleged shooter Sunil Mann is being verified. It is alleged that Swami had agreed to pay Rs. 1 crore for the murder but later the deal was finalised at Rs. 30 lakh, a part of which was paid in advance to buy weapons.
It is also learnt that one of Mr. Bhardwaj’s lawyer, who was familiar with most of his land deals, was questioned on Wednesday to check the veracity of the claims made by Purushottam on the disputed property between Mr. Bhardwaj and the suspect.
The 30-acre disputed land in Bahadurgarh is said to be worth crores.
Purushottam and Sunil along with Amit, the driver of the Skoda car that carried the assailants to the “Nitesh Kunj” farmhouse where Mr. Bhardwaj was gunned down last month, were arrested on Monday. They were remanded to 10 days in police custody by a Delhi court on Tuesday.