Nitika Sharma (left); Ashwini Kumar alias Johnny Dada (right)

MEERUT/BIJNOR: Bijnor has been rocked by three murders in broad daylight in the past five days. To local cops' surprise, the suspect in all these murders is common - a 30-year-old man with no criminal record. Ashwini Kumar, who uses the alias of Johnny Dada, has so far been a TikTok 'villain', according to inputs from local intelligence unit.

A drug addict, Ashwini is fond of uploading TikTok videos wherein he portrays himself as a "villain". Messages on his Facebook wall are mostly crisp: "I'll destroy everything", "Devil is ready now", "See my havoc" etc.

But he has been known to be a harmless man - until he shot a local BJP leader's 25-year-old son and his nephew, 26, following a dispute on September 27 in Bijnor's Barhapur area. He fled the busy market area waving a pistol after the cold-blooded murders. On Monday, Ashwini struck again. This time he barged into the house of 27-year-old Nitika Sharma, who worked with a hotel in Dubai who had come to her hometown in Bijnor for her wedding, and pumped multiple bullets into her.

Referred to a higher facility in Moradabad, she breathed her last on Tuesday morning. She was to marry a sub-inspector posted with CISF in Chennai on December 2.

According to Nitika's family, Ashwini had made advances and was spurned by her in 2002 when he used to frequent her uncle's place in Daulatabad. Later, she shifted to Dubai and settled there. The episode was forgotten, or so they thought.

"It is likely that Ashwini was upset with the news of her wedding and wanted to settle scores," a police official said. However, police are yet to establish motive in the other two murders he committed four days earlier.

Ashwini, a graduate, comes from a humble background in Barhapur town of Bijnor. His father was a clerk in a sugarcane cooperative society in Dhampur tehsil and his elder brother works in a private company in Dehradun.

According to the family, Ashwini also used to work with a private firm in Delhi but abruptly gave it up. His family believes his sustained drug addiction might have affected his mental health.

Meanwhile, additional security forces have been deployed in Bijnor and a reward of Rs 25,000 has been announced for anyone providing any information about his whereabouts.

“We have formed eight teams and a combing operation is underway to trace him. Posters announcing bounty and carrying his pictures and personal details have also been put up at various locations. Local are being requested to alert police about his whereabouts,” Bijnor superintendent of police Sanjeev Tyagi said.

