Dragging death case: 6th accused sent to 3-day police custody

A Delhi court on Friday remanded in police custody for three days the sixth accused arrested in the case of death of a woman who was hit by a car and dragged on the roads for about two hours in the national capital.

Police had arrested Ashutosh Bhardwaj earlier in the day.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sanya Dalal allowed his three-day custodial interrogation after the Delhi police sought his remand for five days.

Stating the grounds for police custody, police said Bhardwaj gave a false statement about the driver’s identity and custodial interrogation of the accused was required to establish the linkages and role of each accused in the case.

Bhardwaj was the “suspected driver” of the car but he had wrongly “planted” Deepak’s name as the person who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, the Investigating Officer (IO) said.

He said according to the CCTV footage, five people were seen in the car. But as the footage was hazy, Bhardwaj’s presence in the car had to be established through his call detail record (CDR), the IO said.

He said another accused Ankush, who was a “main conspirator”, was absconding and Bhardwaj was required to be confronted with other co-accused.

The five people accused of causing the death of 20-year-old Anjali Singh had allegedly borrowed the car from Ashutosh, police said while arresting him.

Those arrested earlier are: Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun and Manoj Mittal.

The victim was killed in the early hours of the New Year Day after her scooter was hit by a car and she got entangled underneath the vehicle before being dragged for more than 12 kilometres.

Her body later got dislodged and was found lying on the road in Kanjhawala.

The court had on Thursday extended the police custody of the five accused by four days.

(With PTI inputs)