In 2001, the Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her Ashoka Road residence at New Delhi. Within the next few days, the police solved the murder case claiming that Sher Singh Rana, a dreaded criminal from Roorkee town in Uttarakhand had killed her to avenge the infamous Behmai massacre. This Uttarakhand connection had unraveled the high-profile murder mystery.
And now, Uttarakhand is again in news for yet another high-profile twin murder of liquor king Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep at Chattarpur farmhouse in New Delhi on November 17 amid mounting pressure on Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to order CBI probe into the possible conspiracy angle in the murder case following alleged involvement of some politicians and bureaucrats of the hill state.
State Food Minister Pritam Singh wrote a letter to the chief Minister to recommend a CBI probe in the murder case, a move that has also raised doubts over the competence of the Delhi’s crime branch police, official sources said. The state BJP too has demanded a probe into the issue.
However, Bahuguna rejected the demand saying the case is outside the jurisdiction of Uttarakhand. “Since these two murders took place in New Delhi, we cannot recommend any CBI probe,” Bahuguna said. The Chief Minister also said he has not seen any information regarding any alleged links of some politicians and bureaucrats with the murder case.
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand police has written a letter to the Delhi police calling for due intimation whenever it carries raids in certain hideouts in connection with the Ponty Chandha murder case.
“We have sent a letter to Delhi police asking them to inform us when they carry raids in Uttarakhand. We have told Delhi police that the Uttarakhand police should also be taken into confidence,” said Inspector General (Law and Order) RS Meena.
On the other hand, sleuths of the crime branch police of Delhi continued to raids various hideouts in Uttarkahand including Dehradun looking for various evidences and clues pertaining to the murder in which former BJP leader Sukhdev Singh Namdhari along with his PSO Sachin Tyagi have already been arrested.
