Court reserves order on framing of charges against 7 accused in Delhi's Kanjhawala hit and drag case
Jul 17, 2023
New Delhi [India], July 18 : Delhi's Rohini Court on Monday reserved order on charge in the Kanjhawala hit and drag case. The court will pronounce order on charge on July 27. Delhi police had filed a charge sheet under sections of murder, etc. against seven accused persons on April 1.
In this case a girl was allegedly hit by a car and dragged under it for 13 kilometres in Sultanpuri area on intervening night of 31 December 2022 and January 1, 2023.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Neeraj Gaur after hearing arguments listed the matter for order on charge against the accused persons on July 27.
The accused persons Amit Khanna, Krishan, Manoj and Mithun are in judicial custody. Deepak Khanna, Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna are on court bail.
Additional public prosecutor Atul Srivastava appeared for Delhi police and submitted that there is sufficient evidence including CCTV footage, statement of witness, mobile location of the accused to frame charges against them.
Advocate JP Singh appeared on behalf of accused namely Amit Khanna, Krishan alias Kallu, Manoj Mittal, Deepak Khanna and Ankush Khanna. He argued that it is a case of discharge as the allegations levelled against the accused persons have not been made out.
Advocate Singh argued that the prosecution does not have evidence nor any witness to prove that there was any motive behind the act by the accused persons, as to why the accused person would commit any act towards the deceased victim.
"There is no evidence or witness which shows that there was any premeditation of mind or conspiracy of the accused persons with respect to the act," the counsel argued.
He also submitted that there is no evidence or witness which shows that there was any knowledge with the accused persons with regard to the fact that the deceased was in the driving vehicle except the disclosure statement of the accused persons, there is no CCTV which shows that accused persons looked under the vehicle, the screenshot which the prosecution has placed on record does not have the details of the driving vehicle neither there is anything which clearly shows the identity of the vehicle, identity of the accused persons and neither anything is clearly visible in the screenshot.
Advocate Shilpesh Chaudhary and Himanshu Yadav appeared for accused Ashutosh Bhardwaj. He was the first accused who was granted bail. On April 13, the Magistrate court took cognizance of the charge sheet of Delhi police.
Delhi police had filed a 800 page charge sheet on April 1. Police invoked murder section against four accused. There total seven accused in this case. Three accused are on bail in the matter.
Delhi Police have invoked section of murder, destruction of evidence, conspiracy and other sections against four accused namely Manoj, Mithun, Krishan and Amit.
The other three accused Deepak, Ashutosh and Ankush have been implicated under sections related to destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and other offences.
The charges sheet has stated that On 01.01.2023, an FIR was registered at PS Sultan Puri, Delhi in which the victim Ms Anjali was dragged for many kilometres after getting entangled under the vehicle.
During the investigation, seven accused persons Manoj Mittal, Amit Khanna, Krishan alias Kallu, Mithun alias Arjun alias KD, Deepak Khanna, Ankush Khanna, Ashutosh Bhardwaj were arrested.
On completion of investigation, charge sheet of about 800 Pages has been prepared with around 120 witnesses cited in the present case, police said.
On the basis of the material / evidences collected during the investigation, to the best of capabilities, sufficient material has come on record to prosecute accused persons Amit Khanna for commission of offence U/s 302/279/337/201/212/182/34/120B IPC & 3/181, 185 M.V. Act.
Delhi police have implicated accused Krishan for commission of offence under sections 302/201/212/34/120B/182 IPC. Accused Mithun has been implicated for commission of offence under sections 302/201/212/34/120B/182 IPC.
Another accused Manoj Mittal has also been implicated for commission of offence u/s 302/201/212/34/120B/182 IPC. Apart from these three accused Deepak Khanna for commission of offence U/s 201/212/182/34/120B IPC.
Delhi police have implicated Ankush for commission of offence u/s 201/212/182/34/120B IPC. The accused Ashutosh has been implicated for commission of offence u/s 201/212 /182/34/120B IPC & 5/180 M.V. Act.
