Ponty Chadha case: Trial of Namdhari and 10 others to begin on March 21

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court will commence from March 21 trial of sacked Uttarakhand minority panel chief S S Namdhari and ten others, charge sheeted for their alleged roles in the killings of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his younger brother Hardeep at a farm house here.

Additional Sessions Judge of South District in Saket Court will conduct the trial of the case against Namdhari, his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi, his aides Simranjeet Singh and Jagbir Singh, and six other accused.

Ponty's men including Narender Alawat, who was arrested a day before the charge sheet was filed in the case on February 16, will also be tried by the sessions court.

The case was today committed to the sessions court for trial by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raj Kumar Tripathi, who has supplied copies of the charge sheet to the 21 accused.

Offences under sections "302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 397 (dacoity), and 368 (kidnapping) of IPC are exclusively triable by the court of sessions...The accused is directed to appear before the court concerned on March 21," Tripathi said.

Ponty Chadha and Hardeep, who had an alleged property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse in south Delhi on November 17, last year.

Namdhari and Tyagi face charges of murder, attempt to murder and other offences under the IPC besides cases under the Arms Act. Ponty has also been accused of killing his brother in the charge sheet.

The other accused have been booked for the offences ranging from attempt to murder, causing grievous harm, dacoity, rioting with deadly weapons, house trespass, kidnapping and illegally confining occupants of the farm house and destruction of evidence under the IPC.
After absconding for over three months, accused Satnam Singh, Balkar Singh, Baaj Singh, Pargat Singh, Kulbir Singh, Bakshish Singh and Hardayal Singh, all from Namdhari's group, surrendered on March seven as they were named in the charge sheet in the case.

The court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against these seven accused besides two others, who are still on the run.

According to the charge sheet, Ponty had reached the farmhouse in pursuance of his "well-hatched conspiracy" with Namdhari and others to take over the possession of the disputed property which was under Hardeep's custody.

It has stated that Ponty and Namdhari were the "main conspirators in armed and forcible dispossession of occupants" from the farm house.