Did Hardeep open fire first?

Preliminary investigations indicate that the first person to open fire at Gurdeep Singh aka Ponty Chadha was his younger brother Hardeep, who was also gunned down by his brother’s personal security officer during the exchange of fire at a Chhattarpur farmhouse in South Delhi on Saturday.

“Questioning of some eyewitnesses has revealed that immediately after Hardeep reached the farmhouse, he encountered his brother and his associates who were on their way out after having driven Hardeep’s employees out of the premises,” said a police officer. “Wielding two firearms, he allegedly pulled the triggers seriously injuring his brother. The ballistic report will establish if the bullets found in Ponty’s body were fired from the same pistols. It appears that in the return fire, Hardeep sustained bullet injuries and died on the spot. All these facts are being crosschecked.”

Since Ponty suffered from disability in both hands, the police believe that he was not carrying any firearm. He suffered bullet injuries in the leg, stomach and back. He was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The police are questioning three Punjab Police personnel and two personal security officers of Hardeep who were following him in another vehicle while on his way back from Noida to the farmhouse, after being told that his brother’s associates had allegedly driven his employees out of the farmhouse. The five claimed that the entire action was over by the time they reached there.

The police have contacted the family members of both the victims, who live in another farmhouse in the same locality. Police sources said the Chadhas own several plots in Chhattarpur.

The police suspect that the bloodshed was the fallout of a dispute over the farmhouse property where the incident took place. They are trying to verify if the two parties were also entangled in a legal dispute in this regard and whether an inspection of the property had been ordered to ascertain who among them was in possession. The property was reportedly in the name of their late father Kulwant Singh Chadha.

It is learnt that the inspection was scheduled to be carried out soon.

“We will record statements of the family members at an opportune time. Post-mortem on the bodies will be conducted on Sunday,” said a police officer