Ponty Chadha shootout case: Namdhari sent to 5-day police custody

New Delhi - Sacked Uttarakhand Minority Commission chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari was on Saturday remanded in police custody for five days by a Delhi court with the police accusing him to be the main conspirator in Ponty Chadha shootout case and saying that he fired at Hardeep Chadha.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg sent Mr. Namdhari to five days’ police custody saying “the investigating agencies should be given an opportunity for their endeavour to recover the weapon used in the crime.”

“In view of the same, accused is remanded in police custody for five days till November 28,” the judge said.

During the hearing, the police accused Mr. Namdhari of having shot at liquor baron Ponty Chadha’s brother Hardeep Chadha at the shootout in a South Delhi farmhouse last Saturday.

The police said Mr. Namdhari in his disclosure statement had admitted that he had fired at Hardeep Chadha with his pistol when Hardeep Chadha pointed his gun at him.

It also accused Mr. Namdhari of being the main conspirator of the shootout as he was involved in vandalising the farmhouse, besides in the loot, robbery and attempt to murder there.

The investigating agency said he is the main culprit as he in his FIR earlier had not disclosed about the firing and had also hidden his gun.

“I don’t want to talk more on this case. I just want to say that it was just an accident and the FIR was lodged by me in this case. I called police myself,” Mr. Namdhari told reporters while going out of the court premises after he was remanded in police custody.

“It is wrong to say that he fired. It is a matter of investigation,” he added.

Namdhari faces 14 cases
Meanwhile, a senior police official said that as many as 14 cases were lodged against Mr. Namdhari in various parts of Uttarakhand.

“From murder to bullying his rivals into submission to establish his monopoly in mining business, there were 14 cases lodged against the former state minority panel chief, who is in custody now,” IG (law and order) Ramsingh Meena said in Dehra Dun.

Mr. Namdhari who was present along with Ponty Chadha at the time of the farmhouse shootout, was picked up for interrogation by a Delhi police team from his home at Bajpur in Udhamsingh Nagar district of Uttarakhand yesterday.

He was sacked just a few days back from the minority panel by the state government due to “doubts on his integrity”.