Wanted smuggler arrested, owns hotel in Indonesia

Two decades ago at the age of 21, he entered the world of smuggling and then rose to own a hotel in Indonesia but a car drive to meet his family led him into a police net.
41-year-old Deepak Bhardwaj, a Delhi University graduate, was arrested along with his associate Vinod Kumar (40) from near ISBT Kashmere Gate yesterday on a tip off, Sanjeev Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.
Yadav claimed that he used Naxal links and other sources to procure red sandalwood from Andhra Pradesh and used to stock it in different godowns in NCR.
"Bhardwaj is involved in more than 14 cases of red sandalwood smuggling, drug trafficking, fraud, assault and cheating in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is wanted in six cases and has been declared proclaimed offender in four cases," he said.

His accomplice Kumar is also a proclaimed offender in a case of human trafficking in Hoshiarpur of Punjab.
Bhardwaj, whose father worked as a Section Officer in Parliament, was hiding in a flat in Greater Noida and was on his way to meet his family when he was arrested by police, Yadav said.

It was in 1993 that he allegedly entered the crime world with his friend Manoj Roy by smuggling photo-chromic glasses into India from Burma. He used to sell these photo-chromatic glasses in Ballimaran in Old Delhi and Muradabad in UP.
"During this period, he came in contact with K Maniappa who was also smuggling photo-chromic glasses. In 1997, he started smuggling banned drug ephedrine from India to China via Mandlay in Burma. He bought drugs from Agra and Delhi.

"Drugs were sent in trucks to Burma. This trade continued till 2000, when Burmese Army tightened the security. In 2000, he ventured into human trafficking in Delhi. He cheated people by promising them jobs in Russia, Singapore and Malaysia," Yadav said.
Bhardwaj was arrested in 2004 in Mumbai and after his release the next year, he again was allegedly involved in human trafficking.