Sultanpuri accident case: Murder charges added against 7 suspects

The charges were invoked five after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed the city police to add the stringent section 302, based on an inquiry report submitted by special commissioner Shalini Singh

The Delhi Police have added murder charges under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to the first information report (FIR) registered in the gruesome death of a 20-year-old woman in the Sultanpuri drag and murder case, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.

A police van outside Anjali Kumari’s residence in New Delhi earlier this month. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

The charges were invoked five after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed the city police to add the stringent section 302, based on an inquiry report submitted by special commissioner Shalini Singh. Earlier, the FIR had been registered under section 304(culpable homicide not amounting to murder). Eleven police personnel were also suspended over alleged negligence on MHA’s direction.

Seven people have been named as accused in the FIR. But who will face the murder charges will be clear only after the police file a charge sheet in the matter. Once the charge sheet is filed, the court will frame charges against each accused. The maximum punishment under section 302 is death by hanging. Police said they added murder charges after collecting “physical, oral, forensic and other scientific evidence.” Under section 304, the maximum punishment is either life imprisonment (304or maximum ten years(under 304 II). During framing of charges, the court decides if the accused person is to be charged under I or II of the section 304.

Anjali Kumari, 20, was hit by a Baleno car on January 1, when she was returning home on her scooter. Kumari’s leg got stuck in the underside of the car, and she was dragged for nearly three hours on a stretch of over 14 kilometres. According to the post-mortem report, Kumari suffered at least 40 grievous wounds. Her skull was fractured and some brain matter was missing, her ribs were exposed from the back, and she suffered deep-cut wounds on both arms and forehead, the autopsy report showed.

Police identified the four men in the car as Amit Khanna(25), who works with a credit card firm in Uttam Nagar, Krishan (27) who works at the Spanish Culture Centre in Connaught Place, Mithun Kumar(26), a hairdresser in Naraina, and Manoj Mittal(27) who works at a ration shop in Sultanpuri. Three others -- Deepak Khanna(26) a gramin sewa driver too, Ashutosh(32) owner of the car, and Ankush Khanna(30) were arrested for helping the four men in destroying evidence and misleading police by giving false statements.

Citing the evidence that led police to add murder charges, a senior officer, who asked not to be named, said, “The four men knew the woman was trapped under their car but they continued driving. We have call details to show that even before the woman’s body was dislodged from the car, the four men called their friends to seek legal help. Their friends in turn called legal experts. The other three accused misled us as part of the plan and said that there were five men in the car instead of four. They also said the car was driven by a man who was not in the car because Amit Khanna, who was at the wheel, does not have a licence. Instead of rushing the woman to the hospital or taking her out of the car, they continued to drive and killed her in the process.”

The officer added that they have evidence to prove that the men knew the woman’s body was trapped under the car. “There are two police pickets on the road. They drove on the wrong side of the carriageway to avoid being seen by police personnel at the picket. Police teams have also conducted reconstruction of the crime scene to prove that there was no possibility of the accused being unaware of the body underneath the vehicle,,” he added.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the family said, police informed them that murder charges had been added to the FIR.