Ponty Chadha murder: Trial of Namdhari, 10 others to begin on 21 March

New Delhi: A Delhi court will commence from 21 March trial of sacked Uttarakhand minority panel chief S S Namdhari and ten others, chargesheeted for their alleged roles in the killings of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his younger brother Hardeep at a farm house here. Additional Sessions Judge of South District in Saket Court will conduct the trial of the case against Namdhari, his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi, his aides Simranjeet Singh and Jagbir Singh, and six other accused. Ponty’s men including Narender Alawat, who was arrested a day before the chargesheet was filed in the case on 16 February, will also be tried by the sessions court. The case was today committed to the sessions court for trial by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raj Kumar Tripathi, who has supplied copies of the chargesheet to the 21 accused. [caption id=“attachment_667691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Namdhari. PTI[/caption] Offences under sections “302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 397 (dacoity), and 368 (kidnapping) of IPC are exclusively triable by the court of sessions…The accused is directed to appear before the court concerned on 21 March,” Tripathi said. Ponty Chadha and Hardeep, who had an alleged property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse in south Delhi on 17 November, last year. Namdhari and Tyagi face charges of murder, attempt to murder and other offences under the IPC besides cases under the Arms Act. Ponty has also been accused of killing his brother in the chargesheet. The other accused have been booked for the 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 under the IPC. After absconding for over three months, accused Satnam Singh, Balkar Singh, Baaj Singh, Pargat Singh, Kulbir Singh, Bakshish Singh and Hardayal Singh, all from Namdhari’s group, surrendered on 7 March as they were named in the chargesheet in the case. The court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against these seven accused besides two others, who are still on the run. According to the chargesheet, Ponty 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. It has stated that Ponty and Namdhari were the “main conspirators in armed and forcible dispossession of occupants” from the farmhouse. Out of 22, proceedings against Ponty stand abated as he was killed in the shootout. PTI