Monty Chadha's PSO Satnam, who was arrested on Thursday, said Namdhari was pressuring Ponty to act against his brother.
"Namdhari has admitted the fact that he wanted to be the main player rather than being called Ponty's man. However, it is unlikely that he fired at Ponty too but we are not ruling any possibility," he further said.
Meanwhile, the investigators took Namdhari again to Uttarakhand to recover two of his 10 allotted bullets that were missing from his residence. Police sources said it has been established that Hardeep fired at Ponty and there was no threat to Namdhari's life.
"He was standing across the land cruiser, so the claim of firing in self defence does not hold. As far as the number of bullets is concerned, two are still missing," the officer said.
"The questioning of Namdhari, his gunman Sachin Tyagi and Ponty's security manager Narender Ahlawat points to the possibility of Namdhari creating circumstances for a hostile encounter between the Chadha brothers," a source said.
Trying to connect the dots of the mystery, sleuths are looking for a link between the shootout and income tax raids at two of Ponty's properties — Centerstage Mall and a Chhatarpur farmhouse — in February this year.
They suspect the raids may have proved a turning point in Ponty's relationship with Namdhari, who was living in the businessman's shadow.
It was alleged after the tax raids that Ponty was tipped off by a contact in the IT department. No cash was found, causing acute embarrassment to the tax sleuths.
However, police sources suspect the alleged stash of Rs 200 crore was handed over to Namdhari for safekeeping.
Ponty is also suspected to have made large real estate deals in Namdhari's name, including a 50-acre purchase in Uttarakhand. Police now want to find out whether the thought of having to return the cash and properties to Ponty made Namdhari plot against him.
