Four Ponty's guards remanded to police custody

The four persons identified as Bhupender, Rajpal, Uday and Anand were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg who sent them to police custody till November 25.

"Investigation in the case is at the initial stage. The conspiracy behind the alleged incident is yet to be unearthed.

"All the four accused persons are remanded to police custody for five days (November 25)," the judge said.

The four were arrested for allegedly entering a disputed farmhouse of Chadhas at Chhattarpur in south Delhi and thrashing Ponty's younger brother Hardeep men on November 17, hours before the liquor baron was killed on the same spot, police told the court on Tuesday.

Police said the four accused were among a group of people who had entered the farmhouse, beat up the men of Hardeep, with whom Ponty had a dispute, and threw them out.

The police had sought five days' remand saying other co-accused are yet to be arrested in the case and these four accused are to be confronted with the articles seized from the farmhouse.

However, police remand of the four was opposed by their senior counsel K K Manan saying since the farmhouse, which the accused had allegedly trespassed into belongs to Ponty, they were unlikely to grab it.

Manan said the case has been cooked up by the police as the person (Nand Lal, Hardeep's car driver), on whose complaint FIR under various provisions of IPC including robbery, trespass, attempt to murder and kidnapping has been lodged against them, is false.

Manan also said there are "glaring inconsistencies and contradictions" recorded in the present case and that there has been an inordinate delay in the registration of an FIR.

He contended before the court that the present accused were picked up by the police on November 17 and the agency has also illegally detained 30 other persons from the farmhouse in which they allegedly trespassed.

The police seeking remand told the court that a large number of other persons are also involved in this case and the alleged shootout between Ponty and Hardeep in which they died and their custodial interrogation is, therefore, required.

This incident had preceded the shootout in the farmhouse in which Ponty and Hardeep were killed.

The police had also told the court that among the four accused, three have been identified by the complainant Lal.

The official also said Lal was kidnapped and shifted to Ponty's farmhouse from were he escaped.

Lal had lodged a case at Mehrauli police station in South Delhi about the alleged trespass of Ponty's men in Hardeep's farmhouse.

The court has in its order also said the IO has failed to produce any evidence on record to establish the ownership of the farmhouse where the alleged incident took place.