The Delhi Police concluded arguments on a case against sacked Uttarakhand Minorities Panel Chief SS Namdhari and 21 others in connection with the killing of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, claiming all the accused were part of a “conspiracy to kill”. However, Namdhari refuted all the allegations of the investigating agency before Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav and said he was “innocent” and had been “falsely implicated”.
After the Delhi Police Crime Branch concluded its arguments, Namdhari’s counsel RS Malik began his submissions, saying there is no legal evidence against his client and the accused has no connection with the bullets recovered from the spot or from the bodies of the deceased brothers. Malik also told the court that none of the co-accused has, in their statements, named Namdhari or referred to his involvement in the commission of the offence.
Ponty and Hardeep, who allegedly had a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhatarpur farmhouse on November 17, last year. During the course of arguments, the prosecution informed the court that the two brothers were not on talking terms as there was a dispute regarding property issues between them.
“The dispute was not resolved on the night of November 16, 2012. The motive was to take away the property by any means, in which the two brothers were killed,” the prosecution said. The prosecution narrated the sequence of events leading to the final act of murder and said Ponty and Namdhari had conspired to take overthe farmhouse fromHardeep’s possession.