Four days have passed since the horrific accident in Delhi’s Kanjhawala, but still, there are many questions that need to be answered. Daily, new facts are coming to the fore and are adding layers to the case.
On December 31, Anjali (20), a resident of Aman Vihar, left her home to celebrate the New Year party. She also informed her family that she would return home late at night.
According to the Delhi police, CCTV footage showed Anjali’s scooty was hit by a Baleno car. Her body got stuck in the car’s wheel, and she was dragged for around 12-15 kilometres from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.
The police arrested five people who were in the car; however, the accused claimed that they did not know that the woman was stuck in the wheels and they only realised it while taking a turn on the road.
The accused have been identified as Krishan (27), Mithun (26), Deepak Khanna (26), Amit Khanna (25) and Manoj Mittal (27).
January 2: The Delhi Police briefed the media regarding the case and admitted that Anjali’s body was dragged for 12 km. This also questions the police’s claim of tight security on New Year’s Eve.
January 3: Another CCTV footage shows that Anjali was not alone on the night of the accident. It revealed that the scooty was driven by her friend, Nidhi, in red clothes.
The footage also shows Anjali (in pink clothes) and her friend Nidhi coming out of a hotel at 1.45 am on January 1 and then getting into an argument. The footage further shows that both Anjali and Nidhi left from there, while Nidhi was driving the scooty initially, and Anjali took over later.
After being probed by the police, Anjali’s friend Nidhi claimed that when their scooty collided with the Baleno car, Anjali fell near the car while she (Nidhi) fell on the other side of the road.
Nidhi claimed that she received a few injuries but got scared by accident and left the spot for home.
“My friend Anjali got stuck under the car. The men knew that a girl had rolled under their car. They deliberately ran over her. They knew. The girl was stuck under the car and she was screaming. I felt so hopeless that I went home,” Nidhi told reporters after Anjali’s cremation.
“I went home and didn’t tell anything to anyone. I panicked. I cried a lot. They drove forward and back twice. Forward and back. Twice. She was on her back. Probably got stuck in something. So they went forward and back. Then they just drove off, dragging her under the car,” Nidhi added.
Nidhi further claimed that the victim was drunk and she had insisted on riding the two-wheeler.
“She had consumed a lot of alcohol. We even had a fight over who would drive the scooty. She was not at all in her senses. Before that accident, she was about to ram into a truck, but I somehow managed to apply the brakes on time even as I was seated behind her,” Nidhi claimed while recalling the incident.
The autopsy report has ruled out sexual assault, and the cause of death was due to an accident and dragging, the report said.
Speaking to a news channel, an eyewitness, Vikas, a food delivery executive claimed that he had informed police patrolling the area about a woman being dragged by a car. Vikas recalled that he was almost hit by the same car when he was on his way to deliver an order on the same Kanjhawal road at around 3.20 am on January 1. When the car moved forward, there was a police post nearby, but the vehicle made a turn again, he claimed.
January 4: Anjali’s kin, Bhupendra Chaurasia, while addressing the media, claimed that her autopsy report showed no signs of her having alcohol. Earlier, Anjali’s friend Nidhi claimed that Anjali was drunk on the night of the accident. The Delhi Police, however, has not said anything about this.
“It is a pre-planned murder. Anjali’s ribs were exposed from the back of the chest. Her lungs were exposed and out,” said Bhupendra Chaurasia.
“The brain is still missing and it fell off from the skull in the Kanjhawala area. There are a total of 40 injuries out of which 20 to 25 are grazed abrasions. There were 14-15 injuries after her death. Some of the injuries were inconspicuous due to blackening, smudging, and brush burn effects,” said Chaurasia.
Chaurasia even questioned that when two friends were together in such a brutal accident, how could one (Nidhi) escape without any injuries?
