Woman dragged under car was with friend during accident; 'no injury to private parts'

Investigation into the Kanjhawala case has revealed that the 20-year-old woman who was killed after her scooter was hit by a car, was accompanied by a friend at the time of the accident. Her friend had fled the scene out of fear, police said on Tuesday (January 3).

The woman Nidhi has been called to record her statement, added the police.

Meanwhile, news reports said an autopsy report has found “no injuries to the private parts” of the woman whose body was found without any clothes after the horrific accident.

In a CCTV footage recovered by the police, the victim was seen leaving a hotel around 1.45 am after a New Year party. She was wearing a pink-coloured T-shirt and her friend a red one. According to the footage, initially, the friend was driving the scooter, while the victim sat in the back seat. In the footage the police retrieved later showed that they had changed places, with the victim in the driver’s seat when it was hit by a car, according to the police.

The friend, police said, escaped with minor injuries and fled the spot, while the victim got stuck under the car and was dragged along. The incident which happened in New Delhi has sent shock waves across the country.

The woman, who was the sole breadwinner of her family, was dragged for 12 kilometres under the car and was found naked by a road in Kanjhawala, according to police. The investigating team is also expected to take the accused to the spot on Tuesday to recreate the crime scene, police said.

Also read: Kejriwal calls Kanjhawala accident ‘shameful’; DCW chief sends notice to cops

‘Something was stuck under the car’

Meanwhile, the man who was driving the car confessed to the police that a few km after hitting Anjali Singh’s scooty in the early hours of Sunday, he felt that “something was stuck” under the car. But, the other four occupants asked him to drive on, said a news report quoting sources.

Her body was later found on the road sans any clothing. She had a broken back and leg.

The accused have also admitted that they were drunk at the time of the crash having consumed consumed more than two bottles of liquor inside the car. The accident took place at around 2 am in Delhi’s Sultanpuri on Sunday when Anjali, who worked at an event management company, was returning home from work.

Deepak Khanna was driving the car, while the other occupants were Amit Khanna, Manoj Mittal, Krishan and Mithun.

The car was stopped in Kanjhawala’s Jonti village when Mithun, who was sitting in the front next to Deepak, saw Anjali’s hand while taking a U-turn. After her body was extricated, the men fled leaving Anjali. It is not clear if she was alive at that point.

Anjali Singh, whose father had died some years ago, lived with her mother and younger siblings, in Aman Vihar in north-west Delhi. The woman’s mother, alleged that the men had sexually assaulted her. “Her clothes cannot be completely torn off. Her entire body was naked when they found her. I want a full investigation and justice,” she said, according to news reports.

Also read: Delhi woman dies after being dragged by car for 12 kms, 5 arrested

Home ministry asks for detailed report; inquiry committee formed

On Tuesday, Special Commissioner of Police Shalini Singh with her team has inspected the 12-km-long stretch from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala, along which the woman was dragged after her two-wheeler was hit.

As outrage mounted over the incident, the Union home ministry on Monday sought a detailed report from the Delhi police. An inquiry committee has also been instituted, headed by Special Commissioner Shalini Singh, and she has been asked to submit a probe report as early as possible.

Five men who were allegedly in the car have been booked for culpable homicide among other sections on Monday even as the police was charged with conducting a “shoddy investigation”. A medical board has conducted a post-mortem of the body, and its report, which will confirm whether the woman was raped, is still awaited.

The special team’s primary responsibility is to do an analysis of the stretch and suggest improvements to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. It will also be looking if all Standard Operating Procedures were followed by the police and whether they responded in time to the incident, and on the basis of the outcome, assign responsibility.

New high-quality security camera footage confirmed horrific witness accounts, according to which, the woman, who worked with an event management firm, was dragged under the wheels for over an hour.