BIJNOR: The hunt for fugitive west UP criminal Ashwini Kumar alias Johnny Dada ended with the 30-year-old shooting himself dead early on Saturday in a bus which police had stopped for checking. Ashwini was carrying a pistol, two magazines and a 14-page note with detailed account of the three murders, including that of a 27-year-old woman working in a Dubai hotel, he allegedly committed last week.

With no prior criminal record, Ashwini, who was fond of uploading

videos wherein he portrayed himself as a “villain” and used the alias of Johnny Dada, struck terror in Bijnor following the gruesome murders.

Though he posted threatening messages, like “I’ll destroy everything”, “Devil is ready now” and “See my havoc”, regularly on Facebook, he had been known to be a harmless man — till he allegedly shot a local BJP leader’s 25-year-old son and his nephew, 26, following a dispute in Bijnor’s Barhapur on September 26.

According to police, Ashwini invited BJP leader Bhim Singh Kashyap’s son Rahul Kumar, 24, and his cousin Krishna alias Lala, 25, for a drink and pumped multiple bullets into them. He fled the busy market area waving a pistol after the cold-blooded murders, police said.

On September 30, Ashwini barged into the house of 27-year-old Nitika Sharma, who worked with a hotel in Dubai and had come to her hometown in Bijnor for her wedding, and shot her multiple times. Referred to a higher facility in Moradabad, she breathed her last later that night. 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.

A massive manhunt involving drones and teams from various police stations was launched for him following the murders.

Bijnor superintendent of police (rural) Vishwajeet Srivastava said, “Ashwini’s location was traced to Nagina area in Bijnor from where he was trying to flee and had boarded a roadways bus. A team of local police stopped the bus at 1:15 am on Saturday.”

According to the SP, when the policemen approached a man who had covered his face with a handkerchief, Ashwini whipped out his pistol and shot himself in the head. He died on the spot.

The bus conductor, who didn’t want to be named, told TOI, “By the time, we reached Bijnor, the bus was almost empty and two commuters boarded it in Nagina. Two constables got on the bus during a surprise check close to the police station. They asked a man to uncover his face, but he suddenly took out a pistol and shot himself.”

A drug addict, Ashwini was a graduate. His father was a clerk in a

cooperative society in Dhampur tehsil and his elder brother works in a private company in Dehradun. According to his 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.