Ponty Chadha, brother cremated

Liquor and real estate baron Ponty Chadha and his estranged brother Hardeep, both killed in a bloody gun battle Saturday, were cremated here Sunday night after a five-hour delay from the scheduled time.

Hundreds of friends and relatives of both the brothers were present at the funeral held at 9.30 p.m. at Dyananad Mukti Dham crematorium in south Delhi's Lodhi Road area.

Ponty's body was earlier sent back to hospital from his home in south Delhi's Chhattarpur area for a second round of autopsy aimed at removing four bullets present in his body.

When the police found that even after the first autopsy of Ponty four bullets were still to be removed, they took the body from the possession of his family for the second post mortem at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"In the first post mortem report we found out that out of seven bullets only three bullets were removed, we decided to get another post mortem get done AIIMS," said a police officer.

A relative said when Ponty's body was being sent to AIIMS by police, his mother Prakash Kaur suggested that his brother's body should also be taken to hospital to ensure that both were cremated together.

After Ponty's second autopsy, the body, along with his brother's body, were taken to the cremation ground directly from the hospital, he said.

The cremation was earlier scheduled to take place at 4.30 p.m., later it was put off till 6.30 p.m. But it took place only at 9.30 p.m.

Former cricketer and MP Mohd Azhuraddin, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Thakur and several other business tycoons were seen at the crematorium.

Around 7 p.m. people waiting for the bodies at the crematorium were told that Ponty's body had been taken for a second post mortem.

"We are shocked that his body is being sent for another post mortem. We hope that his cremation will be done today," Inder Mohan Singh, a relative said.

There was high security at AIIMS when Ponty's body was brought for the second autopsy.

The second post mortem took around one hour and the body was handed over to his family members around 8.30 p.m.

"All four remaining bullets have been extracted from Ponty's body," Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma told IANS at AIIMS.

The post mortems conducted on the two brothers Sunday revealed that the two received 20 bullets among them.

Police are trying to find out why only the estranged brothers were killed in the shootout that lasted nearly 30 minutes at a farmhouse in south Delhi's Chhattarpur Saturday.