The Delhi Police on Thursday said it's searching for two men suspected to have shielded the accused in Anjali Singh's Sultanpuri death case.
In the early hours of the New Year's Day in Delhi, a car hit 20-year-old Singh who was on her scooter. The car then dragged Singh for around 12 kms from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala. Her naked body was found in Delhi's Kanjhawala area.
Five men have so far been arrested in the case who were allegedly in the car, identified as Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun, and Manoj Mittal.
After arresting them, the Delhi Police is now searching the men suspected to have helped them, identified as Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna.
The Delhi Police also said the case is not being treated as a case of murder as no link between the accused and the victim has so far been found.
Delhi Police's Special Commissioner (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda said 18 teams are working on probing the case and all angles are being looked into.
The Two Men Misled Probe: Police
The car that the accused were in belonged to Ashutosh, who is suspected to have shielded the accused, as per a report.
The other person being searched by Delhi Police, Ankush, is the brother of the accused Amit, according to Delhi Police.
Two of the five accused, Deepak Khanna and Amit Khanna, took the car from their friend Ashutosh and later left the vehicle at his residence in an accidental condition, according to a report.
Hooda said 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.
Hooda also 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, said Hooda, adding Deepak also happens to be Amit and Ankush's cousin.
No evidence of murder: Delhi Police
Amid demands that murder charges be invoked against the accused, the Delhi 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.
Hooda 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."
Questions over victim's companion
At the time of the accident, the victim Anjali Singh was with a female companion named Nidhi, who has been described as her friend.
Nidhi escaped the accident and returned to home. The Delhi Police has said that she left the site of accident and went home out of fear.
However, Anjali's family and public figures have raised questions over her claims. The family has said they had never heard of her.
Hooda, however, sought to dismiss claims by Anjali's family that that never heard or met her 'friend' Nidhi. He said around 25-30 calls were exchanged between Anjali and Nidhi during December 29-31.
Nidhi had claimed she was with Anjali when their two-wheeler was hit by the 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.
Anjali's family also rejected the statements that Nidhi was drunk at the time of the incident.
Also, more CCTV footage emerged where Nidhi is seen returning home around 2.30 am, about 45 minutes after they left party venue, leading to questions being raised about the timeline of the events on the fateful night.
Questions over the accident's timeline
According to the footage recovered so far, it has been found that Anjali and Nidhi stepped out of the hotel at 1.16 am, then had a fight and subsequently left the hotel at 1.32 am.
However, a CCTV grab recovered near Nidhi's residence shows that she reached her home around 1.37 am, just five minutes after leaving the hotel, raising questions over police's claim that the the accident happened around 2 am.
A senior police officer said the CCTV device near Nidhi's residence was set 50 minutes late, hence the discrepancy.
"We have seized the DVR and that will explain the glitch. Further, these are CCTV footages from different locations and installed by different entities, so there may be differences of time," the officer, privy to the probe, told PTI.
Anjali's friend doing her character assassination: DCW chief Swati Maliwal
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal has questioned Nidhi's statement.
Maliwal said how can Nidhi be trusted when she did not inform anyone of the accident and left Anjali to die.
She tweeted in Hindi, "Anjali's friend is sitting in a live show and telling how Anjali was hit in front of her by the boys. This 'friend' then left the place and went home. What kind of a friend is she? She did not stop the boys and did no inform the police of Anjali's family. She went home. This should also be investigated.
"Now that police has caught Anjali's friend, she is coming on TV to talk non-sence about her. How can you trust a woman who saw her friend dying and left her there instead of helping her and went home to sleep? Anjali's 'character assassination' has started. The public is smart."
No sign of sex assault
The autopsy of Anjali also showed no sign of sexual assault.
Earlier, a video purportedly showing the woman's body without clothes and broken legs had surfaced on social media. The footage has led to claims that the victim was raped and killed but police said it was an accident.
However, the preliminary autopsy report has showed no indication of sexual assault, according to Delhi Police. Sources told PTI there were no injury marks on her private parts.
Doctors of the Maulana Azad Medical College board who carried out the autopsy opined that the provisional cause of death was "shock and haemorrhage" as a result of pre-death injury "to the head, spine, left femur, and lower limbs".
"All injuries collectively can cause death in the ordinary course of nature. However, injury to the head, spine, long bone and other injuries can cause death independently and collectively in the ordinary course of nature. All injuries produced by blunt force impact and possible with vehicular accident and dragging," says their opinion in the preliminary report.
The Delhi Police said the full report will be received in due course of time. The doctors said they would be able to offer a final opinion after the receipt of chemical analysis and biological sample reports.
Delhi Police on further probe, prosecution
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.
(With PTI inputs)
