NEW DELHI — Gurdeep Singh Chadha was one of India’s most powerful businessmen, a liquor and real estate baron whose influence was intertwined with his money. Known as Ponty, he was a mysterious figure, described in the media as an “invisible man,” even as his political influence protected him.

But Mr. Chadha, who was in his mid- to late 50s, was killed on Saturday, shot in the chest, reportedly by his younger brother Hardeep, who was also killed, after an argument escalated into a gunfight at a luxury farmhouse outside New Delhi. The Shakespearean overtones were inescapable: the brothers had been fighting over the family business since their father’s death last year. They converged at the farmhouse with retinues of armed guards, and soon the bullets flew.

“Some businesses need BlackBerrys,” said a member of the extended family, who would identify himself only as Mr. Kohli. “Some businesses need guards.”

In an era of rampant crony capitalism, Mr. Chadha was among the class of businessmen who symbolized the nexus between money and political power in India. He exerted influence in four northern states, especially in Uttar Pradesh, home to roughly 200 million people, where he had been awarded monopoly control over the state’s wholesale liquor business and held the contract to provide millions of daily midday meals to poor schoolchildren.