Namdhari ‘admits’ shot Hardeep, charged with attempt to murder

The Delhi Police on Saturday charged former Uttarakhand Minorities Commission chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari with attempt to murder and criminal trespass, calling him the main conspirator in the Delhi farmhouse shootout that left liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep dead. According to the police, Namdhari had confessed to firing at Hardeep.

Namdhari, who was produced in a Delhi court after his arrest on Friday from Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district, was remanded in police custody till November 28. Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg granted the same, saying it would help the police in its "endeavour to recover the weapon used in the crime".

Seeking his custody, police said Namdhari was the front man of Ponty Chadha and that they needed to unearth the "deep-rooted conspiracy" behind the shootout. "Many other persons are also involved... Persons having assets of over Rs 1,000 crore are likely to be involved in the conspiracy," Public Prosecutor Manoj Choudhary said.

While police claimed Namdhari had confessed in his disclosure statement of having fired at Hardeep with his pistol after the latter allegedly pointed a gun at him, he denied the same speaking to TV channels. The charges are "a political conspiracy", he repeated.

Speaking to reporters as he left the court, Namdhari claimed the shooting was "an accident". "I just want to say it was an accident and the FIR was lodged by me. I called the police myself," he asserted.

The shootout had happened last Saturday at a farmhouse of the Chadhas in Chhattarpur, Delhi. Police say Namdhari was among those involved in vandalising the farmhouse. The fact that he had not disclosed having shot Hardeep earlier and hidden his gun strengthened the case against him, they added.

The police told the court that they were also trying to trace Namdhari's "accomplices" who allegedly accompanied him to the scene of the crime but "vanished later". They could be hiding in Uttarakhand or Uttar Pradesh, the prosecutor said.

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