New Delhi: The men who dragged a 20-year-old for 13 km under their car in Delhi on New Year's morning, "knew she was stuck under," the victim's friend told reporters today. Nidhi, who accompanied Anjali Singh to a New Year Party, was riding pillion in the same scooty, the police have found. Nidhi, who apparently had a fight with Anjali, had fallen when the car allegedly hit the scooty and after seeing Anjali being dragged under the car, went home in shock.
"The Baleno hit us head on. I fell to one side and she fell towards the front," Nidhi told reporters.
"My friend 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," she told reporters this evening as her friend's body was cremated.
"I went home and didn't tell anything to anyone. I had 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, recalling the traumatic event in vivid detail.
Anjali's leg had got stuck in the axle.
The five men in the car, who are under arrest, have told the police that they had panicked after hitting the scooty and had no idea that the woman was stuck in the undercarriage. They said they were drunk, having polished off two bottles of alcohol on way back from Haryana's Murthal. Also, the music in the car was loud and they heard nothing, they said.
The men claimed that they saw the body when they were near the Jonti village. While taking a U-turn, they saw the woman's arm. Then they stopped the car and leaving the body there, drove off. They returned the car, borrowed from one Ashutosh, and went home.
The 20-year-old, breadwinner for a family of eight, was cremated today amid horror and protests of a shocked city.
The postmortem examination has ruled out sexual assault – a claim made by the family in view of her unclothed body. Her clothes had ripped off and her skin was peeled when the body was found, the outcome of being dragged in the undercarriage for 13 km, the police said. The preliminary postmortem report indicated that the body bore extensive blunt trauma injuries.
The men have been accused of culpable homicide, but further investigations are on.
The horrific incident having taken place on New Year, when the city was under a security blanket, the Home Ministry has asked a senior police officer to look into the lapses on part of the Delhi police.