Firing in South Delhi: Local BSP leader shot dead

NEW DELHI: Deepak Bharadwaj, a local BSP leader and one of the richest candidates in the 2009 LokSabha elections, was shot dead by two men in his south Delhi farmhouse after an altercation.

The incident took place in the farmhouse 'Nitesh Kunj' located in Vasant Kunj area at 9:15 AM. Two others also suffered injuries in the incident.
Two men had come to meet 62-year-old Bharadwaj, who is into education, hotel and real estate business and had declared assets worth around Rs 600 crore in 2009, at the farmhouse this morning in a Skoda car, a senior police official said.

"As they were talking, the two men took out firearms and opened fire at Bharadwaj. They then fled from the scene. The motive and the trigger for the firing is not immediately known. We are investigating the matter," the official said.

Police believe that the two attackers were known to Bharadwaj as they were allowed inside the farmhouse by his security guards.

Bharadwaj, a B.Com degree holder, was rushed to Army's Research and Referral Hospital near Dhaula Kuan where he succumbed to injuries. The post-mortem will be carried out in AIIMS, the official said.

He had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections on a BSP ticket from West Delhi constituency but lost to Congress' Mahabal Mishra. He also ran a school in Dwarka called the Shiksha Bharti Public School.

In the 2009 affidavit he filed with Election Commission, he owned agricultural land worth Rs 368.22 crore while his wife had land worth Rs 100.35 crore. Bharadwaj owned buildings worth Rs 28.75 crore.