Ponty shootout: ‘Namdhari, PSO part of conspiracy to murder Hardeep’

New Delhi: Delhi police on Tuesday claimed before a court here that sacked Uttarakhand minority commission chairman SS Namdhari's PSO Sachin Tyagi allegedly conspired with him and Ponty Chadha to kill the liquor baron's brother Hardeep.

"He (Tyagi) himself disclosed that he was actively involved in the conspiracy of trespass and he along with Namdhari fired shots at Hardeep in furtherance of conspiracy made earlier with Namdhari and Ponty Chadha," Police, which was allowed to interrogate Tyagi in custody for three days, told Metropolitan Magistrate Neha. Ponty and Hardeep were killed in the shootout here last month.

"In continuation of the offence Namdhari and Tyagi fired and killed Hardeep as per conspiracy hatched earlier...," the court was told.

Tyagi, who was arrested last night, was remanded in police custody to unearth the conspiracy and the sequence of the shootout.

"Sustained custodial interrogation is required to unearth the entire sequence and consequences of crime and also for the recovery of weapons used in the crime.

"In view of the submissions made in the application for recovery of other weapons, the accused is remanded to police custody till December 7," the court said.

Crime Branch ACP SP Gupta told the court that Tyagi and Namdhari had allegedly killed Hardeep and thereafter, the PSO had removed the weapon used in the crime from the spot.

He added that Tyagi, a constable with Uttarakhand Police since 2005 and attached with Namdhari as his Personal Security Officer(PSO) since January 2012, had allegedly destroyed the evidence which was part of the investigation.

The police told the court that Tyagi had failed to perform his duty as instead of informing the agency about the plot, he took part in the act and also allegedly fired at Hardeep.

Tyagi's counsel Ranbir Singh opposed the prosecution plea for his remand for three days saying his client had co-operated with the agency since the day of the shootout and that his custodial interrogation was not required.