Who was Ponty Chadha?

Gurdeep Singh Chadha, or "Ponty", is a liquor baron from Uttar Pradesh and headed a business empire, the Wave Group, which is conservatively valued at Rs. 6,000 crore.

Gurdeep Singh Chadha, or "Ponty", is a liquor baron from Uttar Pradesh and headed a business empire, the Wave Group, which is conservatively valued at Rs. 6,000 crore.

HT Image

The company encompasses distilleries, multiplexes (Wave Cinemas), sugar and paper mills, real estate, poultry and films.

Chadha's brothers, sons and a grandson run parts of the empire, but it was Ponty's networking skills and acumen that kept them ahead.

In 2005, during the reign of chief minister Mulayam Singh in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Chadha won statewide contracts to supply ready to eat food for poor, underweight or otherwise malnourished children under the world's largest child-health programmes, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Chadha's companies have been probed by Income Tax authorities several times but he has never suffered legal setbacks. After his properties in 25 locations in Delhi, NCR and Uttar Pradesh were raided in February this year, Chadha reported ‘undisclosed income’ of Rs. 175 crore and paid Rs. 54 crore as tax to the Income Tax department.