Woman gets dragged under car for hours after hit and run

The police have arrested five men, including a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In what is being termed the rarest of rare crimes by the chief minister of India's capital Delhi, a 20-year-old woman was dragged for almost 12 kilometres under a car by five drunk men in the early hours of New Year's Day.

The woman, identified as Anjali Singh, was on her way home when the scooter she was riding collided with a car.

The victim got stuck to the underside of the car on impact. The five men were unaware of this and kept driving on, claiming that they did not hear her screams because loud music was playing in the car.

The woman was dragged for at least two hours from the capital's Sultanpuri area to the Kanjhawala neighbourhood.

The accused confessed that they were drunk on the day of the incident as they were coming back from a new year's party. They fled from the spot because they knew they had hit the girl.

Drunken youths hit a 20-year-old woman with their car and dragged her for a 12 km in Delhi's Sultanpuri area early today. All the five occupants of the car have been apprehended by Delhi Police. pic.twitter.com/Y4CeN1GPrz
— Nikhil Choudhary (@NikhilCh_) January 1, 2023

Several videos from CCTV cameras have emerged that show a body being dragged underneath the car. The victim was accompanied by a friend named Nidhi, who fled the scene in shock and fear.

"The Baleno hit us head-on. I fell to one side and she fell towards the front," NDTV quoted Nidhi as saying.

"My friend got stuck under the car. The men knew that a girl had rolled under their car. They deliberately ran over her. They knew. The girl was stuck under the car and she was screaming. I felt so hopeless that I went home," she added.

Meanwhile, the men claimed that they saw the body at a U-turn, left it there, and drove off in panic. The victim's body was found without clothes, with her skin peeled off.

According to the post-mortem report, she died of "shock and haemorrhage due to antemortem injury to the head, spine, left femur, and both lower limbs." The victim was the sole breadwinner for a family of eight after her father passed away years ago. Her death has sparked protests in Delhi.

The police have arrested the five men, including a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They have been charged with culpable homicide and causing death by negligence.