Hardeep killed brother Ponty Chadha: Delhi police

Hardeep Chadha was named in a chargesheet filed by the Delhi police for causing the death of his elder brother and liquor baron Ponty in a shoot out at a farmhouse in Delhi in November last year.

The Crime Branch of Delhi police filed the charge-sheet before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raj Kumar Tripathi and named Hardeep, who was also killed in the shoot out, as an accused in the case, saying their probe has revealed that Ponty was killed due to the shot fired at him by his brother.

"From the investigations conducted, it has emerged that Hardeep Singh Chadha caused grievous injuries to Narender Ahlawat (Ponty's manager) and death of Gurdeep Singh alias Ponty Chadha," the police said in its chargesheet.

It said, "Hardeep has expired due to shots fired at him by S S Namdhari (sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief) and Sachin Tyagi (Namdhari's PSO). The investigation did not reveal any other person's involvement in causing the aforesaid injuries/death."

The police had earlier filed a chargesheet in a separate case lodged after the shoot out against Ponty, Namdhari and Tyagi. They were booked for the offences of murder and under various other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

The police had also chargesheeted 19 others for offences including attempt to murder, causing grievous harm, dacoity, rioting with deadly weapons, house trespass, kidnapping and illegal confinement and destruction of evidence.

The charges of criminal conspiracy and common intention were also imposed on all the 22 accused, including Ponty, for trying to take over the disputed farm house from the possession of Hardeep.

Ponty and Hardeep, who had an alleged property dispute, were killed in the shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse on November 17 last year.

The first chargesheet had named Ponty as an accused as he had reached the place of incident in accordance with his "well-hatched conspiracy" with Namdhari and others to take the possession of the farmhouse.

The police in today's chargesheet have mentioned the sequence of events about the incident -- saying that Ponty and Namdhari had conspired to take over the farmhouse from the possession of Hardeep.

It said when Ponty's man was opening the gate of the disputed property; Hardeep had fired at the man and at Ponty. In retaliation, Namdhari and his PSO shot him.

"Hardeep reached gate no.3 of the farm house and found Narender, employee of Ponty, opening the gate of the farmhouse and Ponty and Namdhari sitting in the Land Cruiser parked in front of the gate.

"Hardeep first fired at Narender and Narender ran towards his vehicle. When Ponty was about to get down from his car, Hardeep fired at Ponty who was sitting on the left rear seat. Thereafter, both Namdhari and Tyagi, in furtherance of the conspiracy to eliminate all obstacles in their design of taking over possession, fired toward Hardeep. After being hit with bullets, Hardeep managed to reach the guard room, where he succumbed to his injuries," the chargesheet said.

The chargesheet also said, "It is also established that Hardeep caused the death of Ponty with an intention to cause his death or with intention to cause such bodily injuries as are sufficient, in the ordinary course of nature, to cause death. Though there was provocation, the same was not of such a nature so as to justify the actions of Hardeep”.

The court, meanwhile, took cognisance of the chargesheet and committed it to the sessions court for trial.