‘Baron of Booze’ and his brother kill each other
Delhi – Heavily armed guards and nine-metrehigh walls, not to mention the reputation of its owner, kept prying eyes away from Ponty Chadha’s home in Delhi’s most affluent suburb – until the weekend.
A shootout between Chadha, a business tycoon nicknamed the Baron of Booze, and his brother, in which both were killed, has blown open the secret world of the man who epitomised India’s crony capitalism.
The two had faced off, each backed by a posse armed with pistols and automatic rifles.
Hardeep, the younger brother, fired the first shot in the gunfight, police say.
Gurdeep Singh Chadha, known as Ponty, rose from roadside snack-seller to billionaire.
From his family’s first
break, the award of a single alcoholic drink shop licence to his father, he cornered the market, with political backing.
By the time he died, his firm had interests in property, shopping centres, film-making and sugar and paper mills, with an estimated turnover of the equivalent of £2 billion (NZ$3.9b) a year.
He moved easily among politicians and when an investigation over his acquisition of state-owned sugar mills was shelved there was little surprise.
His family said the brothers were locked in a feud, ostensibly about who should live in the Delhi farmhouse, although there were suggestions Hardeep had passed information about Ponty to tax authorities.
Fifteen people rested.
have been ar-