Namdhari arrested from his U'khand home

Namdhari, who was with liquor baron Ponty at the time of his killing in Chattarpur farmhouse in south Delhi, was arrested at his residence in Bajpur in Udhamsinghnagar district of Uttarakhand by a Delhi Police team on charges of trespass.

"We have arrested Namdhari from Uttarakhand. We had sent a team there yesterday following a tip off," Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), told reporters.

Ponty and Hardeep, the brothers who had a dispute over properties, were killed when both sides opened fire at each other last Saturday in a farmhouse owned by their family. Namdhari was present at the spot when the incident took place.

Asked whether Namdhari remains a suspect in the shooting incident, a senior police official said, "As of today, everybody is a supect. We are not into giving any clean chit to anybody. It is the job of court."

Sources said Namdari was not in touch with them after recording of initial statement.

Namdhari refuted reports suggesting that he had gone into hiding after the incident. "I filed the FIR in connection with the shootout incident and have been always ready to cooperate with the police in its investigations,' he said in Bajpur.

Delhi Police had yesterday claimed that Namdhari's men could have aided the liquor baron in taking control of the disputed farmhouse hours before the killings.

The sources said Hardeep had a meeting with his staff at the farmhouse before he went to Noida. He returned to Chattarpur after hearing about Ponty taking over the farmhouse. "He was very angry," the sources said.

Hardeep was found dead in the guard room and there was no blood traces outside, sources said. This raises suspicion that Hardeep was chased and shot.

When asked about PSOs of Hardeep and Ponty, the sources said Ponty's PSOs were not there while Hardeep's PSOs reached the spot late. PSOs were tailing Hardeep from Noida when he started for Chattarpur, they said.