Gurugram: Shivani Chauhan, known as Sia, was out on a Sunday ride with friends on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road on 13 September when video recorded from her helmet camera and posted online the next morning showed a car seemingly ramming into her. Fortunately, Sia walked away from the event, claiming it was deliberate even as Kalyan Bainsla, the car driver who was arrested later, maintained it was an accident.
Six weeks on, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to examine that video and everything around it has arrived at the conclusion that Bainsla, the man alleged to have driven his car into her motorcycle, did so deliberately.
Speaking to ThePrint on Wednesday, Susheela, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Crime Against Women, confirmed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) she heads has found that Bainsla hit the biker on purpose, and that it was no accident.
Susheela, who goes by her first name alone, told The Print that the SIT has submitted its report to Gurugram Police Commissioner Sibash Kabiraj.
According to the police, the SIT has also drafted a chargesheet. It will be filed in court within a week and will follow the sections already in the FIR, including attempt to murder. An SIT member said the chargesheet would be filed well within the 90-day period allowed by law.
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What happened on 13 September
Shivani, 27, lives in Delhi’s Kalkaji. She was riding with friends from Golf Course Road towards Extension Road. A white Maruti Ciaz, police say, began following the group. The people in it allegedly made obscene gestures and abused her. The car then hit her motorcycle from the side and sped away. The impact threw Sia off the bike, and she fell on the road, skidding and scraping for some distance.
Sia’s helmet camera recorded the entire event, as did a camera belonging to another biker in the group. There were four men in the car; Bainsla at the wheel and his cousin Lavnish beside him. The other two had been given a lift and were dropped off on the way to Faridabad.
Shivani posted the video on the morning of 14 September. It went viral, with rage against the incident coming online from across the country. Since she had not filed a complaint, the police took suo motu cognisance and registered a case at the Sector 56 police station. The FIR first carried charges such as rash driving.
The same day, Bainsla, a 33-year-old gym owner from Palwal, spoke to the media. He called it an accident and said the biker had cut across him. He then switched off his phone and left for Rajasthan.
A police team traced him. On 15 September, he and Lavnish were arrested at Rajgarh. The police say Bainsla tried to run away while being brought back and got minor injuries in a fall.
After his arrest, Shivani joined the investigation and gave a written complaint. The police then added Sections 109 (attempt to murder), 78 (stalking), 79 (act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
A court sent both men to two days of police custody on 16 September so the crime scene could be reconstructed. They were later sent to judicial custody. Their bail pleas were rejected, and they are now in Bhondsi jail.
How the SIT came about
The Haryana State Commission for Women had sent a notice to the police over the case. After that, Commissioner Kabiraj set up a five-member SIT, headed by ACP Susheela. Its members include the SHO of the Sector 56 police station, the in-charge of the Sohna crime unit, and two other officers.
The SIT was asked to go through the surveillance footage, reconstruct the incident, and test the two versions against each other. Shivani said she was chased and targeted. Bainsla said there was no intent.
The SIT now backs Shivani’s account of events.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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