An eyewitness said he had called PCR and described the situation, but the police did not react.
The car that dragged 20-year-old Anjali Singh for more than an hour through the streets of Delhi, had passed through areas that come under two police stations, sources told NDTV. Senior police officers, on condition of anonymity, say taken together, these two police stations should have had five to seven PCR vans on the road. There should have been more. The Delhi Police had claimed they deployed 16,500 personnel on the road on account of New Year's eve. But none, apparently, saw the shocking scene which has outraged the country.
The woman was dragged through the roads for 13 km after the car hit her scooty. Her body got tangled in the undercarriage, which, the occupants claim they had not noticed. The car took three U-turns on the same road on in west Delhi's Kanjhawala, an eyewitness said.
The eyewitness, who saw the woman being dragged and gave chase to the car, shouting at it to stop, said he had described the situation to the Police Control Room, but the police did not react.
Deepak Dahiya, a local confectioner, told NDTV that he called the police when the car did not stop. "I told the PCR (Police Control Room) vans and pointed at the car, but they didn't even try to catch it," he told NDTV.
On Saturday, New Year's Eve, Special Commissioner of Police Deependra Pathak had said that they had set up 1,600 pickets, 1,200 mobile patrolling vehicles, 2,074 bikes and 125 checkpoints to catch drink driving. To ensure women's safety, 2,500 women personnel were deployed as well.
Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that this is a police cover-up since one of the five accused is a BJP member. Manoj Mittal belongs to the BJP, AAP's Saurabh Bhardwaj said, remarking that it is ironic that a hoarding next to the police station has Mittal's photograph and identifies him as a BJP member.