The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP ) on Friday demanded that Delhi ministers Arvinder Singh Lovely and Haroon Yusuf be named as co-accused in the FIR registered in the Chhatarpur farmhouse shootout, which killed businessman Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Singh, last month.

The party also demanded a judicial inquiry into the links of Lovely and Yusuf with Hardeep.

Two days after a MAIL TODAY investigation revealed the details of the telephonic communication between Hardeep and the two ministers on the day of the shootout and before that, the BJP upped the ante against the Delhi Congress, demanding the immediate resignation of the two cabinet ministers.

Four BJP MLAs flashed copies of the report in the assembly on Friday and sought a discussion on the issue.

“It is a serious issue and we have to know what links the two ministers had with Ponty and Hardeep Chadha. This matter is more important. Other issues can be discussed later,” Sat Prakash Rana, BJP MLA from Bijwasan, said.

“The call records show that the two ministers were constantly in touch with Hardeep. We doubt that Hardeep’s company had got a contract for cluster buses from the transport department because of his equation with the ministers,” said Sunil Vaidya, BJP MLA from Trilokpuri, who raised the issue in the Assembly along with Moti Nagar MLA Subhash Sachdeva and Dwarka legislator Pradyuman Rajput.

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit refrained from commenting on the case. “I can’t launch an investigation into the matter. The investigation agencies are doing their job,” she said.

Demanding police action against the two ministers, state BJP president Vijender Gupta said, “They (Lovely and Yusuf) are protecting the criminals. They should be named as coaccused in the FIR.”

Gupta claimed that both the central and the Delhi government were pressurising the city Police not to interrogate Lovely and Yusuf regarding the shootout.

“Hardeep and Lovely exchanged five calls every day and even conversed minutes before the shootout. It has to be investigated. Amit Shah was interrogated by the Gujarat Police when he had exchanged only two calls,” Gupta said.

“They are part of the episode that took place at Chhatarpur on November 17 (shootout) and police should dig out the truth. We would fight till the end to unravel the truth,” Gupta added.

According to Gupta, the government tried to suppress the case but it failed because the ‘vigilant media’ exposed the entire conspiracy. He further cautioned that if both the ministers continue to hold their positions they might destroy the proof and threaten, witnesses and hamper impartial enquiry.

The BJP would raise the issue in Parliament on Monday. To build more pressure on the Delhi government, the Opposition party will organise protests at Azad Nagar Chowk and Bara Hindu Rao on Saturday.

Namdhari plea rejected

Sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief S.S. Namdhari’s plea for a separate vehicle to transport him from jail to the court on account of an alleged threat to his life was rejected by a Delhi court.

Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, a prime accused in Ponty shootout case

Namdhari, prime accused in liquor baron Ponty Chadha’s shootout case, has been lodged in jail in connection with killing Ponty’s brother Hardeep.

The plea was moved by Namdhari on Thursday, when he was produced before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao on the expiry of his judicial custody.

Namdhari’s counsel said other under-trials attacked and injured his client on Thursday, when he was being brought to the court.

The court had on Thursday remanded Namdhari and his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi to judicial custody till December 27.

Ponty and Hardeep, who had an ongoing property dispute, were killed in a shootout at their Chhatarpur farmhouse here on November 17 afternoon, since then the police have arrested 10 people including Tyagi and Namdhari in various criminal cases linked to the incident.

The police have booked Namdhari on charges of murder. The police told the court that from the probe, it has been established that Namdhari played a vital role in the conspiracy with other co- accused, who acted on his orders.

Meanwhile, the court sent Simranjeet Singh and Jagbir Singh, members of Namdhari’s Khalsa Sena, to police custody till December 18. It is alleged that both of them helped Namdhari and Ponty gain access to the Chhatarpur farmhouse and forcibly occupy it.