Bhola Kaushika aka Bhola Pandit, had come to Kota in 2017 to prepare for IIT-JEE. He slogged for around two years, but had to drop out at the end of 2018, when he was detained with some other boys for murder of an old woman.

Kota News: The city of Kota in Rajasthan is known as the coaching hub of India, where each year hundreds of thousands of young students arrive to prepare for various competitive exams held in the country and dream of achieving their dreams by becoming successful engineers, doctors, and civil servants.

This education hub, which is thronged by a sea of young boys and girls each years, also has a very haunting darkside as is evident by hundreds of student suicides reported from the city every year.

However, another darkside of Kota was recently uncovered when the story of Bhola Kaushika aka Bhola Pandit came to the light.

Who is Bhola Kaushika?

Like many of his peers, Bhola Kaushika arrived Kota as a 17-year-old with a dream in his eyes to become an engineer. However, the IIT-aspirant became an outlaw after things took a dark turn in 2018 and Kaushika found himself an accused in a murder case and was locked up in a juvenile home with other hardened anti-social minors.

When Bhola came out of the home, he pursued a life of crime and became a very busy arms supplier, catering to several criminals in Uttar Pradesh.

Now 23, Bhola Kaushika, who also goes by the name of Bhola Pandit, was arrested on Tuesday by the Kota City Police from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

His name came up last month, when a team led by Vigyan Nagar Police Station SHO Satish Chand arrested three youths in UP in connection with a firing incident in Kota City and a knife stabbing in Baran district.

A senior police official said the one pistol, 11 live cartridges, one knife, and two motorbikes were seized from the three accused.

During interrogation, one of them, 19-year-old Sohail Khan, a resident of Anantpura area in Kota, revealed that he had purchased the arms from UP-based Bhola Koushika alias Bhola Pandit, Deputy Superintendent of Police Dharmveer Singh told news agency PTI on Friday.

Bhola Pandit arrest

Police said that Bhola was arrested a special team in Mathura on Tuesday and over three days of remand, he told police that he had supplied around 45 country-made pistols and hundreds of cartridges to several people in Kota.

Raids are continuously being made to nab history sheeters and criminals who got arms from him, the DSP said.

Cases against Bhola Pandit

Bhola had come to Kota in 2017 to prepare for IIT-JEE. He slogged for around two years, but had to drop out at the end of 2018, when he was detained with some other boys for murder of an old woman, the landlady of a house in Talwandi area in Kota city.

He was also wanted in a case at Jawahar Nagar Police Station and carried a reward of Rs 10,000 for information leading to his arrest.

He was booked in two FIRs in Mathura’s Jamana Par Police Station.

Bhola’s elder brother, Girish Pandit, is also reportedly engaged in arms dealing and supplying pistols to criminals in Kota. He is still at large, the officer said.

(With PTI inputs)