Ponty Chadha: Om Prakash Chautala among 700 at cremation

Ponty Chadha and his estranged brother Hardeep Singh Chadha were cremated at the Lodhi Crematorium here on Sunday, but not before confusion prevailed for nearly five hours over the post-mortem of Ponty Chadha.

After the first post-mortem was done at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the bodies of both the brothers were taken to the Chattarpur farmhouse, where they were gunned down on Saturday, at around 4 PM.

However, before the bodies were to be taken to the crematorium, the AIIMS doctors informed the police that the post-mortem of Ponty Chadha had to be done again as three bullets out of 12 were still lodged in his body.

"We were told by Delhi Police that the post-mortem had to be preformed again. Both the bodies have been brought to AIIMS," said a person close to the family. The bodies were finally brought to crematorium after the second post-mortem at around 9PM.

Nearly 700 people attended the cremation. However, except for ex-Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, not many prominent personalities attendedthe funeral. A few Congress and BJP MLAs from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh attended the cremation.

Ponty Chadha remained a relatively unknown figure in the public domain till early this year, when 17 of his premises across UP and New Delhi were raided by income-tax department, including his Noida office in Centerstage Mall.

The business tycoon was known to have close relationships with both SP and BSP ministers.