Namdhari denies firing at Hardeep

Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, the sacked Uttarakhand minorities commission chairman who is a key suspect in the Chattarpur shootout case, has denied that bullets fired by him hit either Ponty Chadha or his brother Hardeep Singh. Faizan Haider reports.

Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, the sacked Uttarakhand minorities commission chairman who is a key suspect in the Chattarpur shootout case, has denied that bullets fired by him hit either Ponty Chadha or his brother Hardeep Singh.

HT Image

Both the brothers were killed in the shootout at their Chattarpur farmhouse on November 17.

Police sources said Namdhari claimed during his interrogation that the bullet mark on the bonnet of Ponty's SUV was from the gun he had fired. Recreating the sequence, he claimed he was standing on the right of the vehicle, while the Chadha brothers were on the left.

"Namdhari came out of the land cruiser from the right and during the shootout he was standing at a distance from the brothers. But the post-mortem report and initial details of the ballistic report hint at the possibility of one of Namdhari's bullets hitting Hardeep," a senior police officer said, wishing to remain anonymous.

On whether one of the two guns recovered from near Hardeep's body was broken, a crime branch official said he had first hit Ponty's manager with it and that could be the reason.

"We were told that the gun was damaged by Narendra Ahlawat, who was injured in the shootout. He said in his statement that Hardeep had hit him with the gun first," the crime branch official said.

Sources said when Hardeep reached the spot, the first thing he saw was Ahlawat opening the lock of the disputed farmhouse. "He first hit him with the gun and then fired at his leg. After that, he went near the SUV and the firing started," he added.