Accused in Sultanpuri hit-and-drag case gets bail

The court observed that allegations of observing that the allegations of harbouring other suspects and wiping evidence against Ashutosh Bhardwaj came forth only after the alleged crime took place.

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Ashutosh Bhardwaj, one of the suspects arrested for the Sultanpuri accident case, observing that the allegations against him — harbouring other suspects and wiping evidence — came forth only after the alleged crime took place.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the Sultanpuri hit-and-drag case in which a 20-year-old woman was killed. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Additional sessions judge Susheel Bala Dagar, in her order, said: “His (Ashutosh) role is alleged to be regarding helping in disappearance of the evidence of offence and of helping in harbouring / protecting the accused persons with the intention of screening the accused persons. All these above allegations seem to have come forth only after the act allegedly done by the co-accused persons. At this stage, there seems to be no document in the form of CDR / CCTV footage etc. produced by the investigating agency to show any prior meeting of minds of accused/ applicant Ashutosh with the other co-accused persons to commit the act before he received the alleged call from co-accused Ankush at 4.56am.”

The court granted bail on the execution of a personal bond of ₹50,000 along with one surety of the same amount.

The court also imposed conditions for the bail, including that Bhardwaj not threaten any person related to the case, not tamper with evidence and not leave the country without the trial court’s permission.

The court also directed that Bhardwaj shall always keep his cellphone’s live location active and shall cooperate with the investigating agency as and when required.

The court had on Monday reserved its order on Bhardwaj’s bail plea after hearing the submissions of special public prosecutor Atul Srivastava appearing for the state and advocates Shilpesh Chaudhary and Himanshu Yadav appearing for Bhardwaj.

He was earlier denied bail by a metropolitan magistrate on January 12. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody along with six other suspects on January 9.