New Delhi: A court here Saturday fixed, for March 28, for commencement of the trial against Uttarakhand minorities panel's sacked chairman S.S. Namdhari and other accused involved in the killing of liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep.

Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav, framing charges against all the 21 accused in the case, listed the recording of the statement of prosecution witnesses for March 28.

The court had earlier dropped murder charges against all the 21 accused saying that the Nov 17, 2012, shootout that resulted in the killing of Ponty and Hardeep "seems to be an event which happened suddenly and unexpectedly".

However, it added charges related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer Sachin Tyagi, which entails the maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The remaining 19 accused were charged under attempt to murder in connection with the incident.