Former minorities panel chief arrested in Ponty Chaddha murder case

Sacked Uttarakhand Minorities Commission Chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari was today taken into custody by a Delhi police team from his residence here in connection with the killing of liquor baron Ponty Chaddha and his brother Hardeep.

A Delhi police team picked up Namdhari from his residence at Bajpur in Udhamsinghnagar district and took him to the national capital, police sources said.

Namdhari refuted reports suggesting that he had gone into hiding after the Delhi farmhouse shootout in which Ponty and his brother Hardeep were killed.

"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.

On his removal from the minority panel, he said it was a political matter and he would not like to comment on it at the moment.

Namdhari was removed from the panel after his name came under a cloud in the wake of reports about his alleged presence at the farmhouse at the time of the shootout.

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