Kanjhawala hit and run incident: Eyewitness Nidhi was arrested in 2020 drug smuggling case

New Delhi: Eyewitness Nidhi, who was riding pillion with Anjali Singh, the 20-year-old who died after her scooty was hit by a car that dragged her for several kilometers in the national capital on New Year’s Day, was earlier arrested in a drug smuggling case, Delhi Police said.

Nidhi was arrested in Agra in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, (1985) case according to an FIR registered in December 2020. Currently Nidhi is out on bail, police sources said.
Nidhi had been intercepted and arrested on December 6, 2020 at the Agra railway station for bringing ganja (drugs) by train from Telangana. She was subsequently placed under arrest. Two boys named Sameer and Ravi were also arrested along with Nidhi.

Meanwhile, in the Kanjhawala case, Delhi Police said on Friday that Nidhi has been asked to join the investigation and clarified that she has not been arrested.

“There are media reports that Nidhi (eyewitness) has been arrested by police. It is clarified that she has been called by Police to join the investigation,” Delhi Police official said.

On Tuesday, Nidhi who was with Anjali at the time of the incident told the media that the latter was drunk on the day of the incident.

“She was in a drunken state but insisted on driving the two-wheeler. After being hit by the car, she came under the car and got dragged with it. I was scared and ran away and returned home, didn’t tell anything to anyone. It is the fault of the girl who was driving in an inebriated state. I insisted that she shouldn’t drive. I told her ‘I am conscious, let me drive’. She didn’t trsut me and trusted herself instead,” Nidhi claimed on Tuesday.

Anjali’s body was found on January 1 in the Kanjhawala area of the national capital. She was dragged for over 12 kilometres by a car that hit her scooter near Sultanpuri.

Seven accused in the case are now in the custody of Delhi Police.

“In the Sultanpuri case, the sixth accused Ashutosh has been arrested who had given false information to the police. Further investigation is on,” the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Delhi Police Sagar Preet Hooda said Friday.

The other five accused in the case- Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun and Manoj Mittal were arrested earlier. The five were driving the car that they borrowed from Ashutosh.

All the accused were taken to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital on Thursday night for a medical examination. Police said that they were taken during the night as a security precaution.

On Thursday, Hooda said that the other two accused were Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna. Both of them are the friends of the five men in custody and had tried to protect the accused.

According to the Special CP, the duo also attempted to tamper with the evidence as they tried to help the accused.

A total of 18 teams of Delhi Police are investigating the case.

During the interrogation, it was found that the car was driven by Amit, not Deepak.