Chadha brothers could have been saved

The investigation into the gunfight between liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha, in which both were killed, reflected major negligence on part of Delhi Police officials. The brothers’ lives could have been saved, had police acted properly when they were informed about the incident.

Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha could have been saved if the Delhi police’s police control room van officials and local police officials with Mehrauli police station had responded properly on the call made to them about a scuffle and aerial firing which occurred just before the killing of the duo in Chhatarpur.

Ponty’s men had broken the locks and thrown out Hardeep’s men present inside the farmhouses in Bijwasan and Chhatarpur around 11 am on Saturday.

First call

They fired some aerial shots during the scuffle. One of Hardeep’s men made a call at police control room around 11.50 am.

But the PCR van which went to the spot, found nothing suspicious and returned from the gate of the farmhouse, said a police official.

Meanwhile, local police officials with Mehrauli police station did not respond to the first call.

Second call to PCR

Half an hour after the first call to police was made about aerial firing and scuffle, around 12.28 pm, police received another call regarding a shoot out and killing of two men from the same farmhouse.

Later, the deceased were identified as Ponty and Hardeep.
When asked about the inefficiency of the PCR staff who could have saved the life of Chadha brothers, officials said it is a matter of investigation.

On the response by police to the call made around 11.50 am about the scuffle, police said the personnel who had gone to the spot had reported that they could not find anything untoward there.

Vivek Gogia, joint commissioner of police (south-west), did not reply to questions if a prompt response to the first call could have averted the incident.