Though investigating officials so far have denied any pressure or interference in their probe into the killings of industrialist Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, they appeared doubtful whether the real conspiracy would ever be revealed.
Thus, senior police officials as of now are not taking the eyewitness account at face value. What the investigators are still not able to digest are two blatant loopholes: First, why did only Ponty and Hardeep die of gunshot wounds and their manager suffer an injury while the others at the farmhouse, who were also heavily armed, escape without a scratch. Second, if Hardeep was shot by the PSO in retaliation, his body should have been found almost at the same spot where Ponty’s body was recovered. But sources reveal that Hardeep’s body was found at least 600 metres away, close to a room.
“This shows that either Hardeep was chased and then killed, or he was shot somewhere else and his body dumped there. In both cases, the theory of retaliatory firing falls flat,” a police official added.
Investigating sources have described as “extremely suspicious” the role of Uttarakhand State Minority Commission chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, whose PSO shot Hardeep dead.
The police is not only verifying Namdhari’s statements but also trying to ascertain whether he has any links with Ponty or Hardeep’s business rivals.