A Delhi court has acquitted Nitesh Bhardwaj and others in a case of allegedly killing his billionaire father and BSP functionary Deepak Bhardwaj in 2013.
Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora acquitted Nitesh and the other accused - Baljeet Singh, Rakesh, Purshottam Rana, Sunil Singh alias Sunil Mann, Amit Mann, Machindernath Namdev alias Swami Pratibhanand and Ramesh Kumari -- citing lack of evidence, the court sources said.
A copy of the judgment, passed last month, however, was not available.
Nitesh, Deepak Bhardwaj's younger son, was arrested in April 2013 for allegedly giving a Rs 5 crore contract for the murder of his father, who had been gunned down at a Delhi farmhouse the previous month.
It was alleged that Nitesh, who was estranged from his father, feared losing his family's wealth and resented his father's growing fondness for a young woman.
According to reports, Bhardwaj had contested the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and was the richest candidate in the general election.
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Police had also recovered two country-made pistols from a canal in Rohtak which were allegedly used to murder Bhardwaj.
Sources said the desire to set up an 'ashram' of his own prompted Pratimanand, a self-styled guru, to allegedly take up the contract to kill Bhardwaj.