Ponty Chadha case: Court reserves order on framing charges till Saturday

New Delhi: A Delhi court today reserved its order for 14 December on framing of charges against sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief SS Namdhari and 21 others, arrested in connection with the killing of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep in a shootout last year. “Come for order on 14 December…,” Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav said while asking the defence counsel to file arguments in written also. [caption id=“attachment_1284115” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Ponty Chadha. PTI[/caption] The court reserved the order after arguments on framing of charges were concluded by the Delhi Police and the 22 accused. The counsel for Delhi police had claimed before the court that all the 22 accused had conspired together to kill Ponty’s brother. However, Namdhari and others refuted the allegations of the probe agency and had said that they are “innocent” and have been “falsely implicated” in the case. Ponty and Hardeep, who allegedly had a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on 17 November last year. During the course of arguments, the prosecution had told the court that the two brothers were not on talking terms as there was property dispute between them. “The dispute had not resolved on 16 November, 2012 night, so the planning was to take away the property by any means, in which the two brothers were killed,” prosecution had said. The prosecution had also narrated the sequence of events leading to the final act of murder and said Ponty, Namdhari along with 21 of their men had conspired to take over the farmhouse from Hardeep’s possession. It had said, Hardeep had arrived at the scene and when Ponty’s men were opening the gate of the disputed property, Hardeep fired at them and also at Ponty, and in return Namdhari and his PSO Sachin Tyagi shot Hardeep. Countering the prosecution’s claim, Namdhari’s counsel had said as per the investigator’s report, Hardeep fired eight bullets out of which seven were found in Ponty’s body and one from other arrested co-accused — Narender Ahlawat, who was shot in the leg during the shootout. PTI