Ponty Chadha's driver key witness

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police claims it finally has an accurate count of the number of shots fired at the Chhatarpur shootout that claimed the lives of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep. It is Ponty's driver, Raj Dev, who has emerged as the main witness and has helped the cops establish the sequence of events, number of bullets fired and Sukhdev Singh Namdhari's role in the whole episode.
Police are certain that 18-20 rounds were fired; but Hardeep, Namdhari and Sachin Tyagi fired only about 15, and the cops are in a fix over this. "Hardeep fired eight rounds from his two pistols, while Namdhari fired three to five rounds. Tyagi fired three shots too. We are trying to find out who fired the other three to five rounds," said a top source, adding that Namdhari was with Ponty Chadha on November 16, too, a day before the shootout.
A highly placed source said Raj Dev, who drove Ponty's Land Cruiser that day, took cover behind the car's wheels when the firing started. Crime Branch says the Punjab Police PSOs of Hardeep had not entered the farmhouse when the firing had started.
Namdhari, sources said, has been changing his statement frequently and has denied having any motive to kill Hardeep; but he lied on purpose in the FIR he registered that he did not fire any shot. "Why did he carry a weapon to the farmhouse if there was no motive?" said a source.
The cops are also questioning another driver-Kamal-about the whole incident. "We have been told that he was not present with Ponty that day but he may give us some clue as we believe he knew about Namdhari's men coming to help Ponty to take possession of the farmhouse," said an officer.
While obtaining Namdhari's custody on Saturday, Delhi Police told the court that he had confessed to shooting at Hardeep with his licensed pistol - a .30 bore (prohibited) weapon - in 'self defence' when Hardeep pointed a gun at him.