Ponty Chadha case: Sukhdev Singh Namdhari faced 14 cases in Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: As many as 14 cases were lodged against sacked Uttarakhand Minority Commission chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari in various parts of the state, a senior police official said today.

"From murder to bullying his rivals into submission to establish his monopoly in mining business, there were 14 cases lodged against the former state minority panel chief, who is in custody now," IG (law and order) Ramsingh Meena said.

However, most of these cases registered against Namdhari in Rudrapur and Bajpur areas of Udhamsingh Nagar district were disposed of within a year after they were lodged due to his connections with "influential people", police sources said requesting anonymity.

In few cases, he was acquitted by the courts and in several others the police filed closure reports, they said.

Interestingly, his acquittal by the lower courts in many cases were never challenged by the police in higher courts.

Namdhari was close to Ponty Chadha for several years, and in the mining business in Uttarakhand he was known as the slain liquor baron's "front man", sources said.

After Uttarakhand was created out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, Namdhari was given mining leases which helped him establish his monopoly in the mining trade in the state, the sources said.

Over the last few years he had become close to politicians as well. He is said to have been close to the previous BJP government in the state but when he foresaw its defeat in the last assembly elections in the state in early 2012 he changed camps and became closer to the Congress.

Namdhari who was present along with Ponty at the time of the farmhouse shootout in Delhi last Saturday, was picked up for interrogation by a Delhi police team from his home at Bajpur in Udhamsingh Nagar district of Uttarakhand yesterday.

He was sacked just a few days back from the minority panel by the state government due to "doubts on his integrity".