Deepak Bhardwaj (1950–2013) was an Indian politician belonging to
Bahujan Samaj Party
The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...
(BSP). Bhardwaj had contested for
15th Lok Sabha
Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee.Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won 44 more seats than the previous 14t ...
from the
West Delhi Constituency in May 2009.
As per news reports, he was the richest candidate for the 15th Lok Sabha elections with declared assets amounting to be more than 6 billion.
At the time of contesting elections he was also facing two criminal cases.
He is distantly related to Shah Rukh Khan.
Early life
Bhardwaj was born
Sonipat
Sonipat is a planned industrial city and administrative headquarter in Sonipat district of Haryana state of India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around from New Delhi. It lies 214 km (128 miles) southwest of Chandigar ...
,
Haryana
Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...
in 1950 in a
Jangid
Jangid (Sanskrit: जऻगिड, romanized: ''Jāngid'') or Jangid-Brahmin or Jaangid is a sub caste in Brahmin community in India like Brahmin-Vats, Brahmin-Gaur etc., specializing in architectural work, wood work like ship building, wooden ...
Brahmin
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
family.
His family had a few acres of land. After graduating in commerce from
Delhi University
The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...
's School of Correspondence,
he became a stenographer with the
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
government's sales tax office.
Career
He started a business of automobile parts. "And I did real estate on the side," Bhardwaj said. He used to acquire agricultural land for use for industrial and farmhouses. After he shut down his automobile business in 1979 and Bhardwaj began focusing on his real estate business full-time.
Bhardwaj had dealings in real estate, hotels and education. He also ran a school in Dwarka and was planning to open two more schools - in Dwarka and the Dhansa respectively, both locations in West Delhi.
He was a resident of the Lajwanti Garden in West Delhi; Bhardwaj also owned a township project in Hardwar and a hotel on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway.
He says, real estate business is the surest way of getting rich. Indeed, Deepak Bhardwaj was the richest
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
candidate in 2009; he and his wife's declared assets were over Rs 6 billion. "It's a non-issue," he says, "I had to declare what I had in my books." When he filed his nomination on 16 April 2009 for the
West Delhi
West Delhi is one of the 11 administrative districts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in India. Administratively, the district is divided into three subdivisions, Patel Nagar, Rajouri Garden and Punjabi Bagh. West Delhi is bound by t ...
Lok Sabha seat, he caused a furore. The media had one big question—isn't there a contradiction between fighting from the
Bahujan Samaj Party
The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...
(BSP) and being extremely rich?
“It's helped us differentiate him from other candidates," said his publicity manager, "Now everyone knows his name."
Until Bhardwaj filed his affidavit, the richest candidate in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
was Kanwar Singh Tanwar, with assets of Rs 1.55 billion. Tanwar, a Gurjar born in Fatehpur village in the South Delhi area of Chhatarpur, now he has a mansion there.
Death
Bhardwaj was shot dead on 26 March 2013 by "two or three unidentified men" in his farm house, ''Nitesh Kunj'' located in Rajokri, Vasant Kunj area of New Delhi.
The Delhi police say Deepak Bhardwaj was estranged from his family for the past several months and his murder was plotted because of a property dispute with his family.
Mr. Bhardwaj was shot dead in his sprawling 34-acre farmhouse on NH-8 near Toll Plaza Gurgaon by two men. The alleged killers were caught on CCTV camera coming out from the farmhouse brandishing a gun and then escaping in a grey Skoda car. (Watch) They were arrested two weeks later. The Delhi Police arrested Deepak Bhardwaj's younger son and his lawyer Nitesh and Baljeet Singh Sehrawat respectively on 10 Apr 2013, in the murder case.
References
External links
BSP candidate Deepak Bhardwaj declares assets worth Rs 600cr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharadwaj, Deepak
2013 deaths
Delhi politicians
1951 births
Bahujan Samaj Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh
Deaths by firearm in India
People murdered in Delhi