A Faridabad police head constable and the personal security officer of Congress leader Vikas Chaudhary have been arrested in connection with his murder on Thursday.
Accused head constable Raju has been arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy for allegedly supplying the contact number and the details of the daily routine of the leader to gangster Kaushal and his accomplices. He has been dismissed from the service. Chaudhary’s PSO Pradeep Dhariwal was arrested at his instance, the police said.
Carrying a cash reward of ₹5 lakh on his head, Kaushal was arrested by the Special Task Force of Haryana Police at Delhi airport on August 26. He was wanted in around 50 cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion in the state, including the murder of Chaudhary.
Kaushal had purportedly told the police about his connection with Raju during interrogation. Besides Kaushal, Raju was also in contact with Sachin Kheri, who was arrested in connection with the case two days ago following an encounter. Sachin carried a cash reward of ₹25,000 on his head. The policeman was also in touch with the other accused in the case — Dhariwal, Neeraj Faridpuri and Amit Dagar. Neeraj and Amit are already arrested. Raju was in contact with Kaushal and Sachin till few days before their arrests. He had proceeded on long leave before the Kaushal’s arrest, the police said.
Pradeep, a close friend of Raju, had been Chaudhary’s PSO for around five years and had complete information about his activities. Pradeep shared details of Chaudhary with Raju and also suggested him that they could extort money from the politician.
Following this, Raju passed on contact numbers of Chaudhary and other businessmen to Kaushal, who in turn made extortion calls to them. Sachin carried out the reconnaissance of the places visited by Chaudhary before the murder based on the details furnished by Raju.
Raju would supply the information in return for money and had taken ₹3 lakh from Kaushal’s mother in Gurugram in the first week of August. The head constable has been remanded in two days police custody.