Ponty murder: SC rejects bail plea of Namdhari

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout here that killed liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, saying the charges against him were “grave”.

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A vacation bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy said, “We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave”.

The bench took strong note of the fact that Namdhari earlier secured interim bail on health grounds from the trial court during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi High Court.

“It is strange. The trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the high court,” it said.

Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence he should be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

In April this year, the trial court had cancelled the interim bail of Namdhari and sent him to jail. The trial court had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, had turned hostile in the matter and it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him. Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds, which was extended from time to time.