Ponty Chadha case: Namdhari's passport impounded

Passport of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, former chief of Uttarakhand Minorities Commission, was on Tuesday impounded by the regional passport office in Jalandhar.

"After a complaint, the office sent a show cause notice on Namdhari's address, however, it was undelivered and returned back to us," said Parneet Singh, regional passport officer.

The postal department told us that no one lived at the address, Singh said.

"After that we have impounded his passport, which was issued to him from here in May 2006," the officer said.

An Uttarakhand resident had complained to us that the former state minority panel chief gave a wrong address while applying for the passport, Singh said.

When asked why the passport was issued to him without verifying the address, he said,"We saw Namdhari's police record, we got police and CID verification report and it is with us."

Namdhari had given the address of Lohia area of Jalandhar, Singh said.

"I have also written to Senior Police Superintendent Jalandhar to inquire into the matter, as to how he got the police verification right," the officer said.

Delhi Police have alleged that Namdhari had opened fire at liquor baron Ponty Chadha's brother Hardeep during the shootout at Chattarpur on November 17 in which both the brothers were killed.

DNA