A court in Delhi has granted bail to Ashutosh Bhardwaj who is one of the accused in the Kanjhawala car accident case.
This is the same case where a 20-year-old girl on a scooter was hit by a car under which her body was dragged for nearly 12 kilometers in the national capital,
The girl Anjali Singh who was knocked down by the car was owned by Bhardwaj.
Although Bharadwaj claims that he was not present during the incident but had given his car to the other accused for their use.
Additional Sessions Judge Susheel Bala Dagar in the bail order passed today, mentioned that no document in the form of CDR/CCTV footage etc. was produced by the investigating agency to show any prior meeting of minds of Bhardwaj with the other co-accused persons to commit the act.
The Court has also said that the accused was in Judicial custody since 5th january and would not be required for any further custodial interrogation.
The judge directed that keeping in view the above discussions and circumstances of the case, the applicant/ accused Ashutosh is granted bail on executing a personal bond of ₹50,000/- with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Ld. Trial Court/ Duty MM.
It was on the new year eve(31st December) that the Sultanpuri police while performing night patrollingwas informed about one scooty found lying in accidental condition.
The dead body of deceased was found in Kanjhawala area which was later on identified, while the five accused who were in car namely Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Manoj and Mithun were arrested.
Bhardwaj was however arrested later.Last week, all the five other accused and Bharadwaj were remanded to 14-day judicial custody.
During the hearing in the bail plea, the State spoke about the offence of murder against the accused along with charges of causing death with negligence, criminal conspiracy and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.
The applicant counsel said that his only role was that he had given his car to one of his friend namely Amit Khanna who is one of the accused in the case, on December 31, 2022.
Bharadwaj said that he has been helping the police officials in the investigation as he himself handed over his car to the police and helped them to arrest the other co-accused persons.
As a matter of fact, an alibi was offered, with the counsel stating at the time of the incident, Bhardwaj was with his family and neighbors at his residence to celebrate the new year’s eve.
The counsel also said that Bhardwaj had joined the investigation for 4-5 days and he was not initially arrested but was later arrested due to public pressure.
The lawyer of Bharadwaj contended that he was not present inside the car and, therefore, must be granted bail as no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him behind bars.
The State counsel however said that considering the entire scenario, Bhardwaj seems to be hand in gloves with other co-accused persons due to which the metropolitan judge had previously rejected the bail and granted police custody.
The counsel for Bharadwaj rebutted this his client did not know about the incident,besides conspiracy is a bailable offence.
The judge after considering the submissions granted bail to Bhardwa