NEW DELHI: His life was like a script from a Bollywood thriller. And it also ended like one. Liquor baron, real estate magnate and owner of Wave multiplexes, Gurdeep Singh Chadha, better known as Ponty Chadha, died in a hail of bullets at the hands of his own brother Hardeep at his swank and sprawling south Delhi farmhouse on Saturday afternoon.
Hardeep was also killed in the sensational gunfight at Chhatarpur involving a posse of PSOs, guards and supporters who were armed with sophisticated weaponry, including 9mm pistols and even an AK-47 rifle.
The two brothers were embroiled in a bitter property dispute over the Wave empire — estimated at anywhere between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore — since the death of their father, Kulwant Singh Chadha last year. Highly-placed sources said that Hardeep had phoned a media baron in Punjab earlier in the morning and told him that "he was going to finally settle the dispute with Ponty today".
Cops claimed that both sides had "planned in advance to settle scores.'' The shootout lasted for over half-an-hour from 11.55am to 12.28pm.
The brothers lived at 21 Central Lane DLF Farms, but came to another farm nearby this morning with their band of armed supporters. "Ponty came to farm No 42 with about 30-40 men in Land Cruisers, Mercedes and a Tata 407 tempo. He wanted to take possession of the farm house and lock the rooms being used by his brother. Hardeep arrived on the scene after being informed of this by his guards. He argued with Ponty for a few minutes and then fired the first bullet," said a senior police officer, adding the facts were still being verified. Hardeep was gunned down by a personal security officer accompanying Ponty.
The killing of Ponty — who was known for his fondness for Armani suits — brought down the curtains on a life that sounds like a Harold Robbins novel, only more incredible.
The 55-year-old businessman, who spent his early youth selling snacks with his father at a country liquor shop, went on to preside over a business empire that stretched across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarkhand, Haryana and Rajasthan and had politicians from every political hue - Mulayam to Mayawati, Amarinder Singh to Sukhbir Badal — eating out of his hands.
It certainly helped that that he had a finger in every business pie — liquor retail, real estate, film production and distribution, sugar mills, distilleries, multiplexes, paper mills, soft drinks, poultry, even schools.
Ponty Chadha, originally from Moradabad, always kept a low profile. He would quietly visit the UP chief minister at Lucknow at 6am and sign business deals at his farmhouse in Delhi two hours later. He also had street smartness. Income tax raids to his company's offices were futile. It was later discovered that Ponty's men often conducted "in-house raids" in the company's various offices and commercial units. A group of auditors and executives would clean up the office computers. The books, as a result, were always clean.
The Chadha family, three brothers - Ponty (chairman), Rajinder Singh Chadha (managing director), Hardeep Chadha (executive director) and Ponty's son Manpreet 'Monty' Singh Chadha (joint MD) ran the Wave Inc empire. Ponty, as mentioned in the company website, had "the supervisory charge of group's businesses and is executive head of all expansion and diversification programmes. With extensive relationships in trade and government, Gurdeep Singh is preceded by his reputation".
A source close to the family says that tension between the two brothers had reached breaking point after Hardeep apparently sold off a paper mill in Bilaspur without informing Ponty and also underquoted the price when questioned later. It did not help that the two brothers were forced to stay together at the same farmhouse at the insistence of their mother.
Liquor biz may take a hit, but realty safe
Ponty Chadha's death is unlikely to impact his group's real estate business as badly as his liquor distribution and retail businesses, according to sources.
Managing a liquor business is especially difficult as it requires keeping taxmen, police and politicians happy. Besides, as one of the sources put it, most transactions are in cash, for which a company has to manage its own house well. Ponty pulled all of it easily because he knew the liquor business like the back of his hand and was the master of the game.
As Ponty quickly made mega bucks, he diversified into real estate and introduced son Monty to the sector. Though new to the field, Monty started independently taking most of the key decisions, a self-reliance that could come in handy now.
The group has a land bank worth more than Rs 35,000 crore in form of prime plots in NCR and Mohali and shouldn't have much of a problem in completing ongoing projects. Monty, who dropped out of Welham Boys' School after Class 9, is said to be so upbeat about the real estate venture that he is sure it would grow faster than the group's traditional businesses.
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