New Delhi: Anjali Singh had dreams — to be a beautician, to open her own parlour, and ensure she earned enough to support her ailing mother and three younger siblings. She loved making Instagram reels and dressing up.
Then the 20-year-old’s life was snuffed out in a New Year’s Eve accident that has left many in Delhi enraged at the police’s apparent lack of commitment to make the city’s roads safer for residents.
Forced by her circumstances, Anjali had anyway been putting her life at risk to make a living. The young woman, ThePrint has been told by family and friends, was forced to work at events after losing her job. Her income wasn’t constant. On some days she would give a single Rs 500 note to her mother and, on better days, it would be Rs 2,000. The family would somehow manage on that.
Even on the night of her death, Anjali and her friend Nidhi (who doesn’t use a last name) were working at a party in a Delhi hotel where an argument broke out between them and some men. “The two women had an argument with their male friends after which they left the hotel,” a police source said.
The two women left around 1.30 am, but only Nidhi returned home. By 2.15 am, Anjali was stuck under the wheels of a car. All five men in the car were intoxicated, said the police.
Anjali had set out around 6pm from her home in Karan Vihar for the party, telling her ailing mother that she would return the next morning. But, in the morning, her sister got a call from the police informing them that Anjali had been in an accident and the family must rush to the hospital.
After her scooty met with an accident with a Baleno car, she was dragged around 12 km, head entangled under the car, skin and clothes stripped off her body in the process.
Her friend Nidhi, an eyewitness to the accident, didn’t initially inform the police. Sources in the police said Nidhi told them that both of them fell separately after the accident and she went back to her house because she was scared.
“She said she was intoxicated and felt hopeless. She didn’t want anyone to question her so she fled the spot,” a source in Delhi Police said.
CCTV footage shows both women leaving from the hotel around 1.30 am. According to sources, Anjali left soon after an argument with one of the men at the party.
Sole breadwinner
Anjali’s father died around eight years ago after he was allegedly attacked by another family member in a property dispute. Her mother, Rekha, worked in a school but the lockdown and kidney-related ailments stopped that source of income. Anjali had two sisters, one elder and one younger, both of whom are married, and two younger brothers.
The family lived in a three-room set bought around five years ago.
After her mother stopped working, Anjali took a job at the beauty parlour. It was when she lost her job there, her mother Rekha told ThePrint, that she started attending events and weddings.
The lockdown curtailed Anjali’s options in life. She kept looking for a means for fast income and one day, someone connected her to these events. The money was quick, and the family sustained itself.
“She would sometimes go during the day, early morning, and return at night. Sometimes, she would come back only the next day. We don’t ask too many questions. That day she said she was going to a party. I called her twice around 9pm. That’s the last time we spoke. She asked me to have dinner and sleep and said she will return the next day,” Rekha said.
Anjali’s aunt Anu Kumari said, “She was supporting the entire family. From bringing food to the table to paying their school fees. She could only study till class 9. She had to drop out as there was no one else to look after the family.”
For her younger sister Anshika, this was the last halt in her education. “Di would take care of everything…She would get gifts for us at festivals. She had taken over all the responsibilities,” she said.
The autopsy report Tuesday, for provisional cause of death, noted “shock and haemorrhage as a result of ante mortem injury to the head, spine, left femur and both lower limbs. All injuries produced by blunt force impact and possible with vehicular accident and dragging”.
“The report indicates that there is no injury suggestive of sexual assault,” Sagar Preet Hooda, Special CP said.
Sources in the Delhi Police said Nidhi was intoxicated at the time of the accident. The five men in the car that dragged the deceased around were also drunk. “They have said during interrogation that they didn’t realise her body was stuck under the car and only realised it later when the body was untangled. They then dropped the car back to their friend Ashutosh’s place who had borrowed it from his brother-in-law Lokesh,” the officer said.
Rekha’s world, meanwhile, has collapsed. She had given Rs 20,000 for the scooty and Anjali had paid the rest through EMI. “Fate forced her to set foot out so late and work late hours. We knew it’s unsafe for women but she had no option,” Rekha said.
Parents in the congested outer Delhi locality are now skeptical to let their daughters out for work. “Whatever work she did, she didn’t deserve this. The other girl left. Those men could have stopped and removed her from under the car, probably she was still alive when they dragged her around. She must have screamed for help. When we saw her body, it was naked, skin peeled off,” said Anu Kumari.
Anjali’s last rites were performed Tuesday evening. There was heavy police presence in Karan Vihar and no one was allowed to visit the family. And the question, “why would they not stop the car?” hung heavy in the air.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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