Ponty case: Pistol recovered from Namdhari's farmhouse

In a breakthrough in the ongoing probe into Ponty Chadha murder case, the Delhi police on Sunday recovered a pistol allegedly used during the farmhouse shootout from sacked Uttarakhand Minority Commission Chairman Sukhbir Singh Namdhari's residence in Uttarakhand's Bajpur town.

The Delhi police team arrived at Namdhari's Bajpur residence on Sunday morning and recovered the 7.62 mm pistol of Indian make from there, Bajpur Circle Officer G C Panta said.

Accompanied by Namdhari, the police team searched his residence in Uttarakhand's Uddham Singh Nagar district for other possible evidence.

Namdhari was picked up for interrogation by the Delhi police from his Bajpur home on Friday and later arrested. The police has accused him of being the main conspirator in the last Saturday's shootout that killed Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, who was allegedly shot by him.

Namdhari was sacked as Uttarakhand Minorities Commission chairman after his proximity to Ponty Chadha came to light following the shootout incident where he was present.

Police had told a magisterial court in Delhi on Saturday that Namdhari had confessed to having shot Hardeep in the Chattarpur farm house in South Delhi last Saturday with his pistol when Hardeep pointed his gun at him.

When the defence counsel contested the police theory after arguments from both the sides, Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg sent Namdhari to five days' police custody,

saying, "The investigating agencies should be given an opportunity for their endeavour to recover the weapon used in the crime."

The investigating agency alleged that he is the main culprit and that he, in his first information report earlier, had not disclosed about the firing and had also hidden his gun.

While coming out of the court premises, Namdhari had told media persons that he did not fire at Hardeep.