The joint interrogation of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari and his PSO Sachin Tyagi has revealed that Hardeep Singh, younger brother of Ponty Chadha, was killed in cold blood. Tyagi, who was arrested on Monday and confronted with Namdhari, told the police that he acted on the direction of Namdhari — the sacked minority commission chairman of Uttarakhand.

“Both have confirmed that there was no threat to Namdhari's life and when they saw Ponty being killed by Hardeep, they decided to eliminate Hardeep too. The first bullet that hit Hardeep was fired by Namdhari and after getting direction from him, Tyagi too fired at him," a senior police officer said.

The duo later cooked up a story that the brothers were killed in a shootout over a property dispute in Chattarpur.

The police said that it was important to confront Namdhari and Tyagi as both were changing statements and were trying to misguide them. Both concealed the fact that Namdhari too had fired at Hardeep. Both will be produced before a court on Friday and police are likely to seek Namdhari’s custody in the murder case now. The mechanic, who had changed the numerical code of Namdhar’s gun, is absconding.