New Delhi:
Sacked Uttarakhand minority panel chief S S Namdhari and his PSO Sachin Tyagi, arrested for their alleged roles in the Ponty Chadha shootout case, were on Friday remanded in judicial custody for six days by a Delhi court.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rajinder Singh sent Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer Tyagi to jail till December 13, after the police said it does not need their further custody for interrogation.
"Accused Namdhari and Tyagi are remanded to judicial custody till December 13," the court said.
The Delhi Police's Crime Branch, which had booked Namdhari allegedly for killing Ponty Chadha's younger brother Hardeep, had him in its custody for interrogation for 13 days.
Tyagi, a constable with Uttarakhand Police since 2005 and attached with Namdhari as his PSO since January 2012, was interrogated for three days by the police in the case.
The court had earlier on December 5 extended Namdhari's police custody till Friday saying his custody was required to recover the alleged weapon and vehicle used in the crime.
The police, while seeking Tyagi's custody, had told the court that he himself had disclosed about his involvement in the conspiracy of trespass and that he along with Namdhari, had shot at Hardeep as per a plan hatched earlier among him, Namdhari and Ponty.
During the hearing on Friday, the police requested the court to remand both the accused to judicial custody till December 13 as the other six arrested accused in the case will also be produced on the same day before the court.
During the proceedings, the court directed the prison authorities to lodge Tyagi in a separate cell after his counsel Ranbir Singh said other under-trial prisoners might harass him in the jail.
"Jail superintendent is directed to lodge the accused Tyagi in a separate cell, which is exclusively made for police personnel facing trial." the court said.
Ponty and Hardeep, who had an ongoing property dispute, were killed in a shootout at their Chattarpur farmhouse in New Delhi on November 17 afternoon, after which the police has arrested altogether 10 people including Tyagi and Namdhari in various criminal cases linked to the incident.
All the accused have been charged with offences including criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, dacoity, assault, destruction of evidence, trespass, illegal confinement and kidnapping.
The police, however, has booked Namdhari on charges of murder. The police had told the court that from the probe, it has been established that Namdhari has played a vital role in the conspiracy with other co-accused, who acted on his orders.