2012 Ponty shootout: Order on framing of charges on Saturday

A Delhi court today reserved its order for December 14 on framing of charges against sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief S S Namdhari and 21 others, arrested in connection with the killing of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep in a shootout last year.
"Come for order on December 14...," Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav said while asking the defence counsel to file arguments in written also.
The court reserved the order after arguments on framing of charges were concluded by the Delhi Police and the 22 accused.
The counsel for Delhi police had claimed before the court that all the 22 accused had conspired together to kill Ponty's brother.

However, Namdhari and others refuted the allegations of the probe agency and had said that they are "innocent" and have been "falsely implicated" in the case.
Ponty and Hardeep, who allegedly had a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17 last year.

During the course of arguments, the prosecution had told the court that the two brothers were not on talking terms as there was property dispute between them.
"The dispute had not resolved on November 16, 2012 night, so the planning was to take away the property by any means, in which the two brothers were killed," prosecution had said.

The prosecution had also narrated the sequence of events leading to the final act of murder and said Ponty, Namdhari along with 21 of their men had conspired to take over the farmhouse from Hardeep's possession.
It had said, Hardeep had arrived at the scene and when Ponty's men were opening the gate of the disputed property, Hardeep fired at them and also at Ponty, and in return Namdhari and his PSO Sachin Tyagi shot Hardeep.
Countering the prosecution's claim, Namdhari's counsel had said as per the investigator's report, Hardeep fired eight bullets out of which seven were found in Ponty's body and one from other arrested co-accused -- Narender Ahlawat, who was shot in the leg during the shootout.