Namdhari was picked up just before his press conference

Minutes before he was whisked away by Delhi Police personnel, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari spoke to mediapersons and was about to address a press conference at his Bajpur residence in Uttarakhand on Friday.

Sources said just when TV channels started running his byte, the police team who was already present in Uttarakhand got to know about his whereabouts and picked him up.

"Why should I run? In fact, I was the one who registered the police complaint," Namdhari told a regional channel here before he was formally arrested by the Delhi Police.

Namdhari claimed that he had switched off his cell phone only for two days to "avoid unwanted calls".

Namdhari's PSO Sachin Tyagi of Uttarakhand Police had allegedly fired at Hardeep. But the sacked minority's commission chairman ducked the question about who fired first and at whom.

"I was sitting on the right side of Ponty. Media knows what happened and I have nothing to say more since it (murder) was a result of a feud between brothers," he said.

Sources said Namdhari, whose fortunes swelled in the last 20-25 years, was caretaker for Ponty's business in the hill state. The Sikh leader, however, denied such claims.

"Ponty was my friend since 1994-95 but it has nothing to do with (business) partnership between us. I have my own agriculture and transport business," he said while training guns on leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party for making him a "scapegoat".

Namdhari, a BJP member who was sacked earlier this week by the Uttarakhand government, dubbed it a small matter since "political leaders face political cases".

Police said 14 cases are registered against Namdhari in different police stations. Though he has been acquitted in most of the cases, two cases of 'serious nature' are still pending in court.