‘Tik Tok killer’s hoots himself dead during police checking

LUCKNOW: Fearing arrest during police checking, the alleged ‘Tik Tok killer’ Ashwani Kumar alias Jonny Dada, 33, who was on the run after killing three people in four days in Bijnor district, shot himself dead while travelling in a roadways bus in Bijnor’s Badhapur area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, police officials said.

The alleged killer carried a reward of ₹50,000 for his capture and a recommendation was sent to senior police authorities to increase the reward to ₹1 lakh.

‘Jonny Dada’ had become a major challenge for the police for the past ten days as he had easily escaped after allegedly shooting dead local BJP leader Bhim Singh Kashyap’s son Chandra Bhushan, 24, and his cousin Krishna, 25, after calling them for a liquor party in Bijnor’s Badhapur on September 26.

While police was hunting for him, he allegedly shot dead a former air hostess, Nikita Sharma, 27, after barging into her house in Bijnor’s Daulatabad area on September 30.

The alleged killer kept on giving sleepless nights to the Bijnor police as he sneaked into the forest area of Daulatabad after killing Nikita and remained elusive since then. The police had deployed Provincial Armed Constabulary and Rapid Action Force for combing the forest area but it proved futile.

Superintendent of police (SP) of Bijnor Sanjiv Tyagi confirmed that Jonny Dada has shot himself dead with a revolver that he was carrying while travelling in the bus to Dehradun in an attempt to escape from Bijnor.

Tyagi said extensive police checking was being conducted when a police team intercepted a roadways bus on the highway in Badhapur area and spotted a suspicious man sitting in the front seat, adjacent to the driver, at around 12.45 am on Saturday.

He said the man had covered his face with a handkerchief and he suddenly whipped out a revolver when a police constable asked him to uncover his face.

Tyagi said the man shot himself on the right side of his temple before the constable could take further action.

“The deceased was later identified as Jonny Dada, who was wanted in three sensational killings in separate parts of Bijnor, recently,” the SP said.

SOCIAL MEDIA ‘SENSATION’

A senior police officer privy of the investigation said Jonny Dada’s aggressive Tik Tok videos, shared on his Facebook account with under the name of Aditya Rajpoot, had created sensation among all those familiar to him in Bijnor. “Everybody who had even a small dispute with him was suspecting that he would be his next target,” the officer said.

He said Jonny Dada had posted multiple text messages, Tik Tok videos and photographs on his Facebook wall, expressing his aggression towards people who insulted him and even warned them to not mess with him. He also posted a message stating that he was going to destroy everything. The official said police found many strange messages and videos posted on his wall. “His social media messages hinted at his alleged acts of revenge and his plans to commit crimes,” the officer said and added, “Some of his posts read – I will go for the kill if I am annoyed’, ‘Gusse ayega toh phir main maroonga’, ‘Mujhe maut se zyada apni izzat pyari hai’ and ‘I am going to leave this life’.”