New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Delhi Police on Thursday said it was looking for two men who are suspected to have shielded the five persons accused of dragging a woman under their car.
Amid demands that murder charges be invoked against the accused in the Kanjhawla incident, police said they have not found any previous link between victim Anjali Singh and the accused. They added that for murder charges to be pressed, intention behind the killing needs to be established.
Addressing a press conference, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda said 18 teams are working on probing the case and all angles are being looked into.
He also sought to dismiss claims by Anjali’s family that that never heard or met her ‘friend’ Nidhi.
Hooda said around 25 to 30 calls were exchanged between Anjali and Nidhi from December 29-31.
Nidhi had claimed she was with Anjali when their two-wheeler was hit by the Baleno car, with Anjali getting stuck under its wheels and succumbing to the grievous injuries sustained during the accident.
Anjali’s family on Wednesday had questioned Nidhi’s claims and denied having heard of her or even meeting her.
Nidhi had fled the spot out of fear, without informing anyone.
Investigating into the CCTV camera footage and call detail records, police zeroed in on two more suspects — Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna — and said they were involved in shielding the accused. Police are on the look out for the duo.
Deepak Khanna (26), Amit Khanna (25), Krishan (27), Mithun (26) and Manoj Mittal have been arrested so far.
Ankush is accused Amit’s brother. Amit does not have a driving license and after he informed Ankush about the accident, his brother convinced Deepak, who is a Gramin Seva driver, to tell police that he was behind the wheel on the fateful day, the officer said.
He said Ashutosh and Ankush were not in the car. Ashutosh also misled the police by claiming that Deepak took the car when it was Amit, who had taken the car. Deepak also happens to be Amit and Ankush’s cousin, Hooda said.
When questioned about any link between the accused and victim, the senior officer said: “There was no connection between accused and victim and accused and eyewitnesses. This is what has been revealed so far in the investigation. The accused will be produced before the court on Thursday and we will request the court for police custody.” The officer said that all five accused are being interrogated.
Talking about fighting the case in court, Hooda said that a public prosecutor is also being appointed.
“Intention is required for murder. Till now, no previous connection has been found between the accused and victim. If intention is not established, it is difficult for police to prove charges under section 302,” Hooda said.
On allegations of delay in arrival of PCR vans and calls not being answered, he said an internal inquiry is being conducted.
“It will be looked into whether it was human error or some system glitch. Police deployment is more at places where footfall is more,” he added.
There were some technical glitches over footage timings also that emerged. More CCTV footage emerged on Wednesday where Nidhi was seen returning home around 1.37 am, about five minutes after she and Anjali left the party venue, leading to questions being raised about the timeline of the events on the fateful night. However, Hooda said the incident occurred between 2.04 am to 2.06 am, while body was found around 4.15 am.
“Footage is emerging and we are also investigating the matter,” he added.
Sources said that a shoe and an earring were recovered from the spot by police. The FSL teams have recovered bloodstains and pieces of cloth that were found stuck to the car. PTI NIT/SSH AMP SLB ZMN
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