New Delhi:
The two men, wanted for their alleged roles in the killings of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep at a farm house in Delhi, on Friday surrendered before a Delhi court which sent them to police custody for two days.
The two accused, who were chargesheeted along with sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief SS Namdhari and 19 others for killings on November 17, last year, appeared before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Raj Kumar Tripathi who remanded them in police custody till May 12.
After being missing for over five months, Premveer and Inderpal surrendered only after the judge on April 25 had ordered initiation of proceedings under section 82 of the Code of Criminal Proceedings (CrPC) to declare them proclaimed offenders.
The two, against whom the proceedings were ordered, were private security guards of Ponty's brother Rajender Chadha and belong to Uttar Pradesh.
Under section 82 of CrPC, if the court has a reason to believe that the accused is absconding or concealing himself, it orders the prosecution to publish a notice about the accused or publicly announce or affix information about the person near his house or public places for making him appear in the court.
Meanwhile, the court extended till May 23 the judicial custody of seven accused named in a charge sheet for their alleged roles in the killing of Ponty and Hardeep.
Seeking two days custody of the accused, the Delhi Police Crime Branch officials told the court that they have to be interrogated thoroughly as they were also involved in the commission of the crime.
Ponty and Hardeep, who had an alleged property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse in south Delhi.
Besides Namdhari and his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi, the police on February 16 had chargesheeted 20 others including Ponty for the offences including attempt to murder, causing grievous harm, dacoity, rioting with deadly weapons, house trespass, kidnapping and illegally confining occupants of the farm house and destruction of evidence.
All the 22 accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, common intention and those under the Arms Act.
The charge sheet named Ponty as an accused as he had reached the farm house in pursuance of his "well-hatched conspiracy" with Namdhari and others to take over the possession of the disputed property which was under Hardeep's custody.
Out of the 22, proceedings against Ponty stand abated as he was killed in the shootout.