"I fell on one side of the scooty, she fell on the other side. That's when she got stuck under the car. I fled from there and went home because I got scared," said the friend of Anjali Singh, the 20-year-old woman, who was killed in the wee hours of 1 January in Delhi's Kanjhawala.
The friend is an eye witness of the accident, and was riding pillion on the scooty when a grey Baleno hit the vehicle. Singh's body got entangled in the tyre of the car, and she got dragged for several kilometres in Kanjhawala.
The victim's friend's statement was recorded by the Delhi police on 3 January, informed Special CP (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda. He said she did not suffer any injuries and fled.
What did the friend say? On 3 January night, the victim's friend recounted the incident, and said, "She (Singh) was screaming from under the car. I was hopeless. I went home and didn’t tell anyone about the incident out of fear. I got home and cried a lot."
She claimed, "The Baleno accelerated forward, then backward, and then raced ahead dragging her.”
Who is the friend? The woman is a resident of outer Delhi's Sultanpuri, and claimed to Aaj Tak news channel that she had known the victim for a few days only. She claimed that the two went to a hotel to celebrate New Year's eve on 31 December, and left from there around 1.30 am on 1 January. A CCTV footage of the women on the scooty surfaced on 3 January. A police source told The Quint, "The pillion rider's presence was established after the hotel record were checked. Then the CCTV footage too showed two women, and not just the victim."
What happened on 1 January? Singh was killed in Delhi's Kanjhawala area in the early hours of Sunday, 1 January, after she was mowed down by a car that dragged her for several kilometres. All five occupants of the car – Manoj Mittal (27), Deepak Khanna (26), Amit Khanna (25), Krishan (27), and Mithun (27) – have since been arrested and sent to three days of police remand.
Where does the case stand? An FIR has been filed under sections 279 (driving or riding on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 304A (causing death by negligence), and 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Ministry of Home Affairs has also ordered a detailed inquiry into the matter by senior Delhi Police officer Shalini Singh.
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