New Delhi: Delhi High Court has refused to grant bail to the driver of the vehicle accused of dragging a woman under his car for more than 12 km, leading to her death in 2023.Justice Girish Kathpalia said the gravity and the manner in which the murder was allegedly committed dissuaded the court from granting relief to Amit Khanna, the accused in the Kanjhawala hit-and-drag case.Anjali Singh (20) was killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day after her scooter was hit by the car, which dragged her from Sultanpur to Kanjhawala.“The CCTV footage depicts that the offending car was handed over to the accused/applicant to drive and even after hitting the deceased and dragging her body under the car, the accused/applicant continued to drive, after which he stopped and got down, but even after seeing the deceased entangled under the car, he drove further up to 13 km,” the order passed Thursday said.“The gravity and manner in which the murder was allegedly committed dissuades me from granting bail. Therefore, the bail application is dismissed,” the court said.Khanna sought bail on the ground that he had been in custody since Jan 1, 2023, without any evidence, and all the other co-accused had been released.His lawyer said that Anjali’s pillion rider Nidhi’s claim, that she could identify the accused as the driver of the offending car, came out only in her third statement, which was recorded a week after the incident.The lawyer emphasised that according to Nidhi’s testimony, the deceased was heavily drunk as they were returning from a party.It was further contended that the CCTV footage does not depict the accused, and till date, the investigating officer has not placed on record the results of ‘Facial Recognition System’.Delhi Police’s counsel opposed the bail plea, stating that Khanna was driving the car.The court examined Nidhi’s testimony and observed that although Anjali was stated to be drunk at the time of the incident, the statement also stated that even Khanna and other passengers in the car were “heavily drunk”.In July 2023, a trial court had ordered the framing of murder charges against Khanna and three others, after Delhi Police filed an 800-page chargesheet in the case in April.
