Absconding ‘TikTok killer’ shoots himself dead

A man suspected to have killed three people in five days in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor shot himself dead while travelling on an Uttar Pradesh roadways bus on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, the police said.

Nicknamed the TikTok killer because of the videos he posted on the app, 33-year-old Ashwani Kumar alias Jonny Dada, who had been on the run from the police and carried a ~50,000 reward for information leading to his capture, shot himself with a revolver in Bijnor’s Badhapur area on a bus headed to Dehradun. An effort was underway to double the reward as the police turned up the heat.

Bijnor’s superintendent of police Sanjiv Tyagi confirmed the death by suicide. A police team that was checking the vehicle at around 12.45 am on Saturday spotted a man, who had his face covered with a handkerchief, seated adjacent to the bus driver, Tyagi said. He whipped out the revolver and shot himself in the temple when a constable asked him to uncover his face.

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

Jonny Dada’s capture had become a major challenge for Uttar Pradesh police over the past 10 days. He escaped after allegedly shooting dead local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhim Singh Kashyap’s son Chandra Bhushan, 24, and his cousin Krishna, 25, after calling them to a liquor party in Badhapur on September 26. The police said revenge for making him walk around naked over a petty spat was the apparent motive.

As the police launched a hunt for him, he allegedly shot dead a former flight attendant, Nikita Sharma, 27, after barging into her house in Bijnor’s Daulatabad area on September 30. The police said he once had a crush on Sharma, who was engaged to be married in November.

After the killing of Sharma, he was believed by the police to have gone into hiding in the forest area of Daulatabad The police deployed the Provincial Armed Constabulary and Rapid Action Force to comb the forest for Jonny Dada, but they couldn’t find him.

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

“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’, {If I get angry,, I will kill again} and ‘I am going to leave this life’.”

NICKNAMED THE TIKTOK KILLER, JONNY DADA ESCAPED AFTER KILLING A BJP LEADER’S SON AND KIN ON SEPT 26, AND A FORMER FLIGHT ATTENDANT ON SEPT 30