Victim Anjali Singh and friend Nidhi left together after New Year's party in early hours of Jan 1. (CCTV)
In the death of a woman named Anjali Singh, who was dragged for kilometres by a car that hit her scooter in Delhi on January 1, her friend Nidhi, who was with her, has said she'd left the scene in panic after the collision. Nidhi said she did not tell anyone about the accident "out of fear".
Nidhi has also claimed — in a statement recorded before a magistrate as evidence — that the collision was the car driver's fault, though the men in the Maruti Baleno have said the scooter was swerving and that caused the accident.
In the collision soon after, Anjali fell in front of the car while Nidhi fell on the other side and escaped without injury, she has told the magistrate.
Nidhi was uninjured, but Anjali's leg was stuck in the car's front axle and she was dragged through the streets before one of the five men noticed after about 13 km.
The two friends had left a hotel in Sultanpuri on Anjali's scooter around 1.45 am — they had a brief argument over who will drive — and initially Nidhi was driving before Anjali took over.
Police did not at first know there was another person on the scooter, but Nidhi's presence was discovered upon checking of the hotel register and CCTV footage. She is since cooperating in the probe, police officials said.
An autopsy has ruled out sexual assault that was suspected by the victim's family.
For further tests, swab samples and shreds of her jeans have been preserved.
The five men, who have allegedly admitted to being drunk at the time, have been arrested and charged with 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder', rash driving and causing death by negligence.
They said they sped away in panic after hitting the scooter. It was after the car had covered 13 km, dragging the woman through the streets, that one of the men noticed an arm sticking out at a U-turn at Kanjhawala. They stopped, her body fell off, and they drove away.
The case unraveled after police responded to calls from people who saw the body being dragged.
Cops said Deepak Khanna, the one driving, has said he did feel "something stuck" under the car, but others told him it was nothing.