Rs 50k reward on me, I’m here to surrender: Murder accused to cop

NOIDA: “I have a Rs 50,000 reward on my head in a murder case,” a 40-year-old man announced before a bunch of stunned cops at Bisrakh police station on Monday.
With folded hands, Sheru Bhati, an accused in the murder of BJP functionary Shiv Kumar Yadav in November last year, pleaded that he be arrested as the cops flipped through pages of FIRs to match his picture. Ten days ago, his father Sahdev Bhati and brother Anil had surrendered before the cops in the same case.

The series of surrenders — after being on the run for months — comes against the backdrop of encounters across UP. On Sunday alone, there were five encounters in Noida. The shootouts have triggered a sense of fear in the minds of those wanted in several criminal cases, prompting them to surrender rather than being shot in hot pursuit, the police have claimed.

According to police records, at least 300 people have surrendered across UP between Saturday and Sunday. In the intervening period, Noida police have been involved in five encounters and shootouts, killing one murder accused and arresting seven.

A video uploaded by the police on a WhatsApp group on Monday shows Sheru entering the police station around 4.05pm and surrendering with his hands folded. As the cops ask him who he is, he can be heard telling the SHO: “I have a Rs 50,000 reward against me in a murder case. I want to surrender.”

The cops then frisk him, and fish out a pistol from his pockets.

Contacted later, Bisrakh SHO Manish Saxena said he had not seen Sheru’s photo as he has joined the police station recently.

“A Delhi court had issued an order to seize his property on March 16. After we did that, he got scared and surrendered,” Saxena said.

The surrender of Sheru’s father and brother earlier this month had triggered a controversy as there were allegations that as senior policeman taken a bribe to spare their lives and allow them to give up. The police had denied the allegation.

On Monday, too, the Bisrakh police station SHO denied the allegation of bribe. BJP worker Yadav and his two personal guards, Balli Nath and Raispal, were shot dead by a group of nine persons who attacked their Toyota Fortuner in Noida Extension on November 16, 2017.

The three victims were rushed to Fortis Hospital, where Yadav and Nath were declared brought dead. Raispal succumbed to injuries later that night in GTB Hospital.