Liquor baron Ponty Chadha killed in gun duel with brother

Ponty, 55, and his brother Hardeep were shot at in their chests during the meeting at the former's farmhouse in Chhattarpur at around 1 pm on Saturday. Both the brothers were taken to hospitals, where they were declared brought dead. Their bodies were shifted to AIIMS for post mortem.

The three Chadha brothers — Ponty, Hardeep and Rajinder — were jointly managing the R6,000-crore Wave, formerly Chadha Group, which has diverse business interests in fields ranging from distilleries, multiplexes, sugar to paper mills, real estate, poultry and films.

Chadha was also producer of the Sunny Deol starrer, Jo Bole So Nihaal. Considered close to UP politicians, Chadha was one of the prominent names in the liquor business in Uttar Pradesh. He was apparently close to the Samajwadi Party, but switched to the BSP when Mayawati had assumed power, and became the sole distributor of liquor in Uttar Pradesh.

Ponty, whose real name is Gurdeep Chadha, had hit the headlines earlier this year when the I-T department conducted searches on his premises in February, covering 13 locations in Delhi, including posh Sainik Farms, Lajpat Nagar, New Friends Colony, and in six locations in Noida, Moradabad and Lucknow.

The group's recent focus has been on real estate and film distribution businesses.

The Centre Stage Mall in

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