Delhi court adjourns hearing on accused Bhardwaj’s bail plea

New Delhi: A court here on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on the bail plea of an accused in the Kanjhawala hit and drag case.

The bail plea of Ashutosh Bhardwaj, which was scheduled for hearing before Metropolitan Magistrate Sanya Dalal, was adjourned to Thursday as the judge was on leave.

Bhardwaj’s advocate had moved the plea on Monday, saying the offences were bailable in nature and the accused had cooperated with police after the incident.

Additional public prosecutor Atul Srivastava had opposed the plea, saying Bhardwaj had handed over the car involved in the accident to another co-accused, who did not possess a driving licence.

Anjali Singh (20) was killed in the early hours of the New Year after her scooter was hit by a car which dragged her for 12 km from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.

The Delhi Police has so far arrested Deepak Khanna (26), Amit Khanna (25), Krishan (27), Mithun (26), and Manoj Mittal in connection with the incident. Later, two more people — Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna — were arrested for allegedly shielding the accused.

Victim’s family presses for murder charges against accused: Braving biting cold, family members of Kanjhawala case victim Anjali Singh on Tuesday staged a dharna outside Sultanpuri police station here and demanded that the accused be charged with murder.

Singh was killed in the early hours of the New Year after her scooter was hit by a car which dragged her for 12 km from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.

A group of protesters sat outside the Sultanpuri police station and demanded that IPC section 302 (murder) be added in the FIR in the case.

Singh’s kin had also earlier demonstrated outside the police station and called for capital punishment to the accused.

Meanwhile, a court here has directed the Delhi Police to file a report detailing the reasons for the delay in responding to the initial PCR calls made in the Kanjhawala hit and drag case.

The court passed the directions while hearing the prosecution’s application seeking 14 days’ judicial custody of the six accused.

“He (Joint Commissioner of Police) shall present a report for the reasons attributable to the delay caused in responding to the initial PCR call at 3.24 am and at 4.11 am,” Metropolitan Magistrate Sanya Dalal said in an order passed on Monday.

Noting “various CCTV footage from day one till now” had surfaced, the judge directed the police officer to “ensure immediate preservation of the CCTV footage” at the place of occurrence “to avoid tampering of relevant technical evidence”.

“Further, a report in a sealed cover be filed by the next date of hearing regarding the presence or availability of all the CCTV cameras at the place of occurrence and the alleged route map of 12-13 kilometres adopted by the accused persons,” the judge said.

The report would also specify the number of CCTV cameras installed by the state government, including the functional and non-functional cameras, the judge added.