After the local police botched up investigations in the shootout and trespassing at the Chattarpur farmhouse on November 17, the Delhi Police have shifted the case to the crime branch.
 
Sources said the police top brass took serious note of how the local police allowed Sukhdev Singh Namdhari to leave the city despite him being a suspect in the case. A team of south district police arrested Namdhari from his Uttarakhand residence on Friday. His custody was given to the crime branch on Saturday.

“A crime branch team was assisting the local police but on Friday night, it was asked to take over the probe from south district police. The south district police were unable to investigate the matter properly,” a senior police officer said.

However, one of the investigators said 90 per cent of the probe has been completed and the sequence of events is more or less clear. “The murder doesn’t appear to be planned in advance. However, the plan to forcefully take over the Chhatarpur farmhouse was planned and that is why Namdhari was charged with criminal conspiracy. The crime branch will now investigate his role in the shootout,” the south district officer said. 

Sources said more charges could be invoked in the existing FIR, as Namdhari lied to the police. He could face charges of concealing facts.

In his first statement, Namdhari did not inform the police that he had gone to the farmhouse to take it over forcefully an hour before the shootout took place. “He also denied firing during the shootout,” a crime branch officer said.

Sources said close aides of Ponty spilled the beans against Namdhari and accused him of provoking Ponty. Namdhari, on whose complaint the FIR was registered, had claimed Hardeep had fired at him following which his PSO Sachin Tyagi returned the fire in “self-defence”.

But the police found no bullet marks on the car seat where Namdhari was sitting.