People protesting outside a police station alleging that the case was being downplayed, on Monday.
The five men in the car that dragged a woman to death in Delhi's Sultanpuri area on January 1 had consumed at least two-and-a-half bottles of liquor while on the move, police have said. Apparently partying to mark the New Year, they had first headed to Murthal, the Haryana town on the outskirts of Delhi famous for its dhaba food such as paranthas.
They could not find space there, sources said, and headed back towards the areas where they lived in North West and Outer Delhi. They ate something at a roadside eatery, reports have said, and were roaming around and drinking when they hit the scooter that Anjali Singh was driving — with her friend Nidhi riding pillion — near Sultanpuri around 2 am.
This was just minutes after the two young women had left for home from a hotel where they were attending a party.
While the five men — since arrested — did realise they had collided with a scooter, they were so drunk that they did not realise that Anjali Singh's leg was stuck in the front axle and she was being dragged under their car for 13 kilometres.
When they finally spotted her body — one of the men saw a hand sticking out from under the car as they took a u-turn — they panicked again and left the body at the spot where it was found hours later, near Kanjhawala.
An autopsy has ruled out sexual assault.
The case appeared murkier after police today discovered that Anjali was not alone. The friend she was with, Nidhi, has since been cooperating with the probe and said she had fled the spot after the collision as she was scared.
The victim's mother had suspected sexual assault and the area residents, too, held protests as they accused the police of downplaying the incident.
The FIR says the five men had borrowed the Maruti Baleno hatchback hours before the incident.
Deepak Khanna and Amit Khanna had taken the car from their friend Ashutosh and later left the vehicle at his residence after the incident. Ashutosh had also borrowed it earlier from another person.
They were traced after police found the scooter and three calls to the control room said the naked body of a woman was found near Hanuman Mandir at Jonti village in Sultanpuri.
A sub-inspector from the Kanjhawala police station contacted one of the callers and found out about the grey Boleno. Clues led police to Budh Vihar, where the owner of the car, Lokesh, was traced.
He said his car was with his brother-in-law Ashutosh, a resident of Rohini.
Ashutosh then told the cops that Deepak and Amit had taken the car from him on Saturday, December 31, around 7 pm, and later left it at his home "in an accidental condition" around 5 am on Sunday.
After video footage was circulated on social media showing the woman's body, there were fears that she had been raped and then killed, but police said it was an accident.
The men have formally been accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, among other related charges.
(With PTI inputs)