Ponty Chaddha – from a petty vendor to 6000 crore rupee empire

Anil Narendra

The murder of Gurdip Singh Chaddha alias Ponty Chaddha (55 years), a liquor baron and real estate businessman and his brother Hardeep Singh Chaddha has startled everybody. A petty vendor selling salted foods, Ponty Chaddha within no time rose to become a billionaire and this greed for wealth and riches led to the murders of both the brothers. It is such a big tragedy that it will be before long that the details of this crime would be revealed, but the story emerged so far says that there was dispute between the two brothers over seven acre property of 40 to 42 DLF Farm Central Drive. Besides, there was also dispute regarding rest of the property between the brothers. Prior to the Saturday incident, there was also firing at ancestral house of Chaddha group at Moradabad on 5^th October, but with a few telephone calls, the matter was resolved. Had the matter been taken seriously at that time, may be this tragedy could have been avoided. But, the matter took a worst turn on Saturday. The matter of this Farm House was pending in the High Court. Members of the Committee appointed by the Court were to visit this property within a day or two. The Committee wanted to ascertain as to in whose possession the property was. It is believed that both the parties wanted to prove their possession over the property and the result of which came in the form of firing and the death of both the brothers on Saturday. At present, this property was in the possession of Hardip, the youngest of the three brothers. Hardip had gone somewhere on Saturday. In his absence, Ponty arrived at the Farm House at about 11.30 AM. He was accompanied by 10 to 12 armed men on vehicles. It is being said that he had brought about 50 men with him. Sukhdev Singh, Chairman, Uttarakhand Minority Commission was also present at the time of incident. Immediately, on reaching there, they started locking the rooms of the farm house. Persons, present at the farm house were forcefully ousted from there. In the meantime, an employee of Hardip informed him on phone. After locking the rooms in the farm house, when Ponty was leaving from the back door (towards Mandi Road), Hardip entered from the same gate and both confronted each other. There were heated arguments between the two brothers and it came to such a pass that Hardip took out his licensed pistol and fired at his elder brother. Reacting to this, five security guards of Ponty fired on Hardip. When both the sides started firing at each other, persons from both the groups scampered to hide themselves behind trees. During this incident, Ponty Chaddha received 12 bullets and his brother Hardip got four. Besides these, Narendra, an employee of Ponty was also injured in this firing incident. He received three bullet wounds. Narendra is Pont’s manager. Firing continued in the premises of the farm house for almost half an hour and 40-45 rounds were fired. Injured Ponty was taken to Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, where he was declared dead. Hardip died at the spot. Vivek Gogia, Joint Commissioner of Police, South-west region told that a meeting of both the brothers was scheduled for 11-00 AM on Saturday. About three dozens persons from both the sides were present in the meeting. There started arguments between both the brothers at about 12.30 in the noon and Hardip started firing on Ponty. He was shot at about a dozen times. In retaliation, the security guard of Ponty also fired upon Hardip, who received four bullet injuries and he died on the spot. The PCR was informed of the incident at 12-45PM and the PCR van reached at the incident spot at about 13.15 hrs. Both Ponty and Hardip had already been taken to Fortis Hospital at about 13-00 hrs, where both were declared dead. Police found a Scorpio van outside the farm house. The Police sealed the form house after the incident. The Police also recovered two pistols, one AK-47 rifle and some live cartridges. Was this incident, the result of a deep conspiracy or of instant rage? First of all the Police will have to ascertain that who received which bullet and which weapon was it fired from? The ballistic report can prove to be important in this regard. The bullets extracted from the bodies of both the brothers would be sent to ballistic expert. The ballistic report will provide answers to some unsolved questions, which would prove important in solving the mystery of these murders. For example, how many weapons were used to fire the bullets extracted from the bodies of both the brothers? It would be easier to arrive at the number of aggressors involved in the murders. Delhi Police will also have to find out about the points of dissensions between the two brothers. A few months back, the income tax authorities raided Ponty Chaddha’s premises. The firm information with the Income Tax raid party could only have been provided by some insider. Ponty suspected his brother Hardip for providing information to the income tax authorities. Police is also interrogating the guard, who was injured in the firing incident in the farm house. The Police have taken the servants present at the time of firing at the farm house into custody and are trying to know about the series of incidents. The staff of Hardip Chaddha has told the Police about the scuffle between the brothers on Friday night in the party in this farm house. Ponty has always been a high class operator of low profile. A few persons know about his passion for kite flying. When he was a student of 10^th class, his hand got numbed due to electric current through the manjha during kite flying. It was due to this incident that his left hand and two fingers of his right were amputated during an operation. There are so many eye witnesses of this incident that it would be known as to what happened in the farm house on Saturday.