Namdhari, Tyagi booked for murder in chargesheet

Farmhouse shoot-out victim Ponty among 22 named

Police on Saturday filed a chargesheet against sacked Uttarakhand minority commission chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari and 21 others for alleged involvement in the November 2012 farmhouse shoot-out in which liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his younger brother Hardeep were killed.

However, only Namdhari and his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi have been booked for murder.

The chargesheet also names Ponty as an accused as he reached the disputed Chattarpur farmhouse with his “well hatched conspiracy” to take its possession which was under the custody of Hardeep. Ponty was killed due to which the charge may be “abated”.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Mukesh Kumar at Saket court took cognisance of the chargesheet and issued production warrants for the accused in judicial custody, including Namdhari, for February 19.

Delhi Police have so far arrested Namdhari, Tyagi and nine others.

The 19 others named in the chargesheet have been charged under varying offences ranging from attempt to murder, causing grievous harm, dacoity, rioting with deadly weapons, house trespass, kidnapping and illegally confining occupants of the farmhouse, and destruction of evidence.

Police in the chargesheet alleged that Ponty hatched a conspiracy with Namdhari to forcibly take possession of two farmhouses — 42 DLF Farms at Chattarpur and G-19 Pushpanjali Farms at Bijwasan — which were in Hardeep’s physical possession.

As part of the conspiracy, on being called by Ponty, Namdhari along with his PSO and accomplices arrived first at Wave City office in Ghaziabad on November 16, 2012. Next morning, Namdhari clandestinely reached Ponty’s Chattarpur farmhouse and held a meeting with managers who were to execute the plan. It is alleged that he also provided and sent his armed men to take over Hardeep’s farmhouse.

“There was a a long-standing property dispute between Hardeep and Ponty. It has emerged that since the last one year, after the death of their father, the dispute between brothers had escalated, necessitating the intervention of Hardeep’s father-in-law on few occasions, the latest being on November 16, a day before this incident,” the chargesheet said.

“Hardeep and Ponty, both real brothers were not even on talking terms with each other,” the chargesheet added.

It was also mentioned that eyewitness statements, analysis of call details, forensics report and recovery of weapons clearly point towards a well hatched conspiracy by Ponty, Namdhari and their employees to dispossess Hardeep at any cost.

“In order to execute their evil design, both Ponty and Namdhari and their henchmen not only dispossessed Hardeep from the farmhouses, but Namdhari and his PSO Tyagi also shot dead Hardeep,” the chargesheet said.