‘Seemed normal,till we read reports’

“It is shocking. He was really normal; something like this is completely unexpected,” said a woman who lives in the house opposite Bhardwaj’s.

Bhardwaj,27,did an MBA from Kurukshetra University and had worked as a sales manager with Citibank. According to the police,he later started his own company,Goodwill Homeloan,which pushed him into debt and drove him to kidnap Anshul Gupta’s two children. Bhardwaj had known Gupta during his time at Citibank and also knew that Gupta was well-off.

Neighbours said Bhardwaj had moved into the house almost 10 months ago,but did not interact with them much. “He would come in around evening and take his Chevrolet Optra past the gates. He minded his own business and we minded ours. But after what we read in the newspapers,everything he did seems suspicious,” a neighbour said. It was the same Optra that Bhardwaj used in the kidnapping and that helped the police track him down.

The red duplex,of which the family occupied the first floor,is locked and empty. “His wife and son left in the morning after a few relatives arrived. They were also accompanied by a woman constable,” said the police guard posted at the house opposite,which belongs to an assistant commissioner of police posted in Delhi.

Bhardwaj,who was sent to five days’ police custody by a Gurgaon court today,had no prior record of crime,the police said. “He planned it almost a month ago and then got in touch with a few criminals,who then carried out the kidnapping. The rest of his accomplices are still absconding,” a senior police officer said.