Ponty case: Court frames murder charges against 21 accused

A Delhi court today framed murder charges against all 21 accused including sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, in the 2012 shootout here that claimed the lives of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his younger brother Hardeep.
Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav framed charges under section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of IPC against all the accused.
Against one accused, Rajpal, from whom six mobile phones were recovered, the court also framed charges under section 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of IPC.
The court posted the matter for September 19 for commencement of trial.

Ponty and Hardeep, who allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17, 2012.
On January 28, 2014, the trial court had dropped murder charges against all the accused and added culpable homicide not amounting murder charges under section 304 of IPC against the alleged main conspirator Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer Sachin Tyagi.

On May 15, on the plea of police, Delhi High Court had directed framing of murder charges against all the 21 accused.
Ponty and Hardeep were also charge sheeted in the case. However, the trial against them had abated as they were killed in the shootout.

The court had ordered framing of criminal conspiracy, common intention and those under the Arms Act against all the 21 accused for trying to take over the disputed farmhouse from the possession of Hardeep.
The Delhi Police had filed two charge sheets in the case and levelled murder charges against all the accused. The first charge sheet had named Ponty as an accused as he had reached the place of the incident with Namdhari and others as part of his "well-hatched conspiracy" to take possession of the south Delhi farm house.
The supplementary charge sheet had accused Hardeep in the case, saying the probe has shown Ponty was killed by the shot fired at him by his brother.