Sultanpuri hit & drag case: Delhi court denies bail to accused Ashutosh

Ashutosh was arrested by the Delhi police on January 6 and was accused of harbouring the accused and misleading the investigation

Delhi’s Rohini court on Thursday denied bail to Ashutosh, one of the accused in the Kanjhawala woman’s dragging death case.

Video grab of a car that reportedly hit a woman and dragged her for kilometers, in the Sultanpuri area of Delhi. (PTI photo)

The court denied bail stating that the investigation is at an initial stage and as per the investigating agency live location and timeline of the accused is yet to be established to ascertain the role of each of the accused.

Ashutosh was booked by the Delhi Police for harbouring the accused and misleading the police investigation in the matter.

Earlier in the day, the court had reserved orders on the bail plea of Ashutosh.

Ashutosh was arrested by the Delhi police on January 6 and was accused of harbouring the accused and misleading the investigation.

Advocate Shilpesh Chaudhary appearing for Ashutosh submitted before the court that there are videos which show that Ashutosh was not in the car but was at his home.

He also pointed out that his Google location and CDR (call detail record) also show that he was not present in the car.

Chaudhary also submitted that the sections which are made out against him are bailable in nature.

The additional public prosecutor Atul Srivastava submitted that the investigation is at a very nascent stage.

He further submitted that, “it has never been our case that he was inside the car our submission is that he provided the car to someone who was not legally authorised to drive.”

He pointed out that Ashutosh, despite being under legal compulsion, did not inform the police about the incident and gave wrong information that Deepak was driving the car, trying to mislead the investigation.

The court after hearing the submissions of the counsels reserved its order.

Earlier this week, the court had sent all the six accused in the case to 14-day judicial custody while directing the Delhi police to submit a report detailing the reason for the delay caused in responding to the initial PCR calls.

The court had also sought a report indicating the status of the CCTV cameras at the place of occurrence and the route taken by the accused.

The court had further asked the police to preserve all the CCTV footages available to avoid evidence tampering.

Four men in a grey Maruti Suzuki Baleno hit the woman, who was riding a scooty along with a friend in Delhi’s Sultanpuri in the early hours of January 1.

The impact entangled her body to the underside of the car, which then drove on for at least two hours, dragging her body for at least 14km before it dislodged in a mangled state and was found by local residents in outer Delhi’s Kanjhawala.