Ponty Chadha murder: Police recover Namdhari’s pistol

New Delhi : Two days after the arrest of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, the key witness in the murders of Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, police recovered the pistol allegedly used by Namdhari to kill Hardeep, police said Sunday.

A Crime Branch team from Delhi recovered the pistol from Namdhari’s Udham Singh Nagar farmhouse in Uttarakhand.

Police said Namdhari shot and killed Hardeep Nov 17 in the shootout at south Delhi’s Chhattarpur farmhouse No.42.

“The pistol has been sent for ballistic examination,” police said.

Apart from the pistol, the police also recovered a double-barreled rifle and some cartridges from Namdhari’s farmhouse, said the police officer.

The case was transferred to the Crime Branch from south Delhi Police a day after Namdhari was arrested.

Police said the investigating team had found links indicating a conspiracy behind the Chhattarpur farmhouse dispute.

“Namdhari’s interrogation led investigators to question his maternal uncle, who is alleged to have planned the conspiracy to take possession of Ponty’s farmhouse at his house in Uttarkhand’s Pantnagar Sunday,” said the officer.

The officer added that some more arrests are likely soon.

So far Delhi Police have arrested seven people in connection with the case.

Namdhari, who was arrested from Uttarakhand Friday on charges of trespassing, was sent to five days’ police custody by a district court Saturday.

Namdhari was the main conspirator in the case, police told the court. Namdhari claims that the police have falsely implicated him in the case.

Police sources said Namdhari had said that he also fired at Hardeep in the shootout. Ponty Chadha had gone to the farmhouse with Namdhari and his personal security officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.

Namdhari was sacked as chairman of the Uttarakhand Minority Commission after the shootout. He has more than three dozen cases against him, which include murder, attempt to murder, dacoity and others. He was appointed the minority panel chief by the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.

Namdhari went missing from New Delhi after lodging a first information report (FIR) following the shootout.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma told reporters Friday: “Namdhari remained a suspect in the shooting incident. As of today, everybody is a suspect. We are not into giving any clean chit to anybody. It is the job of court. All the suspects connected to the case are under the scanner for trespassing as well as the murders,” Sharma said.