New Delhi: Twenty-year-old Anjali was with her friend Nidhi on the scooty while both were returning home before the two-wheeler collided head-on with a Maruti Baleno car in the early hours of January 1. Due to the impact, Nidhi was tossed off the pillion seat while Anjali got stuck beneath the car that dragged her for several kilometres which eventually resulted in her painful death.
Recalling the events leading to the accident, Nidhi, who was an eye-witness to the incident, said they were returning from a party, and Anjali, who had consumed alcohol, was driving the scooty that she had almost rammed into a truck minutes before it collided with the car.
“She had consumed a lot of alcohol. We even had a fight over who would drive the scooty. She was not at all in her senses. Before that accident, she was about to ram into a truck but I somehow managed to apply the brakes on time even as I was seated behind her… and we got saved,” Nidhi claimed.
She also said that no songs were being played in the car.
“She kept screaming but the car occupants continued to drag her and sped away. She was supposed to first drop me and then go to her home. After the collision, Anjali went under the car and I was thrown to the ground. The car did not stop and moved forward with Anjali stuck beneath, shouting for help.
“She was screaming, ‘Bachao Bachao’ (save me, save me) but the car occupants did not pay any heed to it and went ahead. Had they stopped the car and taken out Anjali, she would have been alive. They might have felt something was stuck under the car and they reversed… again moved the car forward twice… and then drove away.
“It was a brain-fade moment for me… I went straight home. I was feeling hopeless and scared. I was unable to comprehend anything. But when the police asked me about the incident, I told them everything,” said Nidhi.
Nidhi, the prime witness in the case, also recorded her statement under 164 code of criminal procedure on Tuesday.
“They (the accused) knew that a woman got stuck beneath the car. To get rid of her, they even moved their car back and forth, but Anjali had got entangled with some part of the car. Next morning I heard the news that she had died,” said Nidhi.
Nidhi further said had she informed Anjali’s family about the incident, they would have blamed her.
Earlier, the CCTV footage outside the Oyo Hotel in Rohini was also recovered by the police where the victim and Nidhi were seen arguing just before the incident.
“I reached the hotel at 8 p.m. and we left around 2 a.m. The accident took place soon after we left the hotel,” said Nidhi.
“Anjali first picked me from my house in Sultanpuri and then took me to her house in Rohini and then we went to the hotel,” she added.
“I had asked her to hand me over the scooty key but she wanted to drive. We were arguing over who will drive the scooty,” said Nidhi, who also sustained minor injuries on her left hand in the incident.
The police have arrested five persons, who were in the car when the incident took place. They have been identified as Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mitthu and Manoj Mittal.
Amit (25) works with SBI Cards in Uttam Nagar, Krishan (27) works at the Spanish Culture Centre, Mitthu (26) is a hairdresser at Naraina, while Manoj Mittal (27) is a ration dealer in Sultanpuri who is also a BJP worker.
(IANS)
