Kanjhawala hit-and-drag case: Delhi court grants bail to Ashutosh Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI, (PTI): A local court here on Tuesday granted bail to Ashutosh Bhardwaj, an accused in the hit-and-run case in which a 20-year-old woman was dragged to death while trapped under a car in the national capital.

”The applicant or accused Ashutosh is granted bail on executing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety in the like amount…,” Additional Sessions Judge Susheel Bala Dagar said. Noting that Bhardwaj was not present in the car and his role emerged only after the incident, the court said there was no evidence to show any ”prior meeting of minds” with the other co-accused to commit the act.

Bhardwaj’s counsel filed a bail plea in the Sessions Court after a Metropolitan Magistrate dismissed his application last week. ”At this stage, there seems to be no document in the form of call detail record or CCTV footage etc produced by the investigating agency to show any prior meeting of minds of the accused or applicant Ashutosh (Bhardwaj) with the other co-accused persons to commit the act before he received the alleged call from co-accused Ankush at 4.56 am (on January 1),” the judge said.

The accused has been in judicial custody since January 5 and is no more required for custodial interrogation, he added. The judge, however, clarified that he was not expressing an opinion on the merits of the case.

The court noted that Bhardwaj had provided the car to accused Amit Khanna, who did not have a valid driver’s licence and, according to the call detail records collected by the investigating officer, a call was made by co-accused Ankush to Bhardwaj around 4.56 am on the date of the incident.

”Perusal of the record further shows that the role alleged by the investigating agency to the accused seems to have come forth only after the act and he is not alleged to be present in the vehicle at the time of the act and there seems to have been no meeting of minds with any of the other co-accused with the accused Ashutosh (Bhardwaj) prior to the call he allegedly received from co-accused Ankush,” the court said.

The court noted that according to the police, Bhardwaj was the custodial owner of the car and he did not reveal all the facts to the investigating agency and instead allegedly misled the investigators that co-accused Deepak was driving.

”His role is alleged to be regarding helping in the disappearance of the evidence of offence and of helping in harbouring or 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,” the court said.

On Tuesday, the judge also enquired from the investigating officer if the offence of murder under Section 302 of the India Penal Code was invoked individually against Bhardwaj.

Section 302 has been invoked ”in the case”, the investigating officer said. While granting relief to Bhardwaj, the court said the other conditions of bail included the accused not making any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case, not tampering with the evidence, not leaving the country, cooperating with the police and continuously keeping active his mobile phone location.

Earlier during the proceedings, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said Bhardwaj was in conspiracy with the other co-accused and the investigation was still in the initial stages. Bhardwaj’s advocate Shilpesh Chaudhary said the accused came to know about the incident as disclosed by the co-accused when they reached his house and that the alleged offence was bailable in nature.

Anjali Singh was killed in the early hours of New Year’s day after her scooter was hit by a car, which dragged her for more than 12 kilometres from Sultanpur to Kanjhawala. The police arrested Deepak Khanna (26), Amit Khanna (25), Krishan (27), Mithun (26) and Manoj Mittal in the case on January 2. Later, they zeroed in on Bhardwaj, who was arrested four days later.

Ankush, another accused, surrendered on January 6 and was released on bail the next day. (PTI)