Ponty Chadha murder: Court remands 7 accused in judicial custody

New Delhi: A Delhi court today remanded in judicial custody seven accused who had surrendered before the court earlier this month after being listed in a charge sheet for their alleged roles in the killings of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his younger brother Hardeep. After they were produced before the court on expiry of their seven days’ police remand, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raj Kumar Tripathi sent them to judicial custody till 28 March. [caption id=“attachment_661606” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ponty Chadha. PTI[/caption] Satnam Singh, Balkar Singh, Baaj Singh, Pargat Singh, Kulbir Singh, Bakshish Singh and Hardayal Singh were named in the charge sheet along with sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief SS Namdhari and 13 others for the 17 November killings of Ponty and Hardeep in a farm house here. After absconding for over three months, the seven accused, all from Namdhari’s group, surrendered on 7 March. The court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against them and two others, who still remain untraceable. The court had on 28 December, 2012 ordered initiation of proceedings under section 82 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to declare them as proclaimed offenders. In a related development, Ponty’s men Narender Alawat had moved a sessions court seeking bail on the ground that he is suffering from serious health problems due to injuries suffered by him during the alleged shootout. The court has fixed the petition for hearing on 18 March. Delhi Police Crime Branch officials, meanwhile, informed the court today that on the basis of information gathered during custodial interrogation of the seven accused, it has recovered the guns and vehicles used by them during the commission of the crime. Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly embroiled in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at the Chhattarpur farmhouse in south Delhi. Besides Namdhari and his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi, the police had on 16 February named 20 others including Ponty in the charge sheet for offences ranging from attempt to murder, causing grievous harm, dacoity, rioting with deadly weapons, house trespass, kidnapping and illegally confining occupants of the farm house and destruction of evidence. All the 22 accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, common intention and those under the Arms Act. The charge sheet named Ponty as an accused as he had reached the farmhouse in pursuance of his “well-hatched conspiracy” with Namdhari and others to take over the possession of the disputed property which was under Hardeep’s custody. The charge sheet had stated that Ponty and Namdhari were the “main conspirators in armed and forcible dispossession of occupants from farm house No 42”. Out of 22, proceedings against Ponty stand abated as he was killed in the shootout. PTI