No document to show prior meeting of minds: Court grants bail to man accused of lying about identity of car driver in Kanjhawala case

As per the investigating agency, the accused is the custodial owner of the offending vehicle, a Baleno car, which was given to co-accused Amit, who did not have a licence. Bhardwaj’s lawyer Shilpesh Choudhary had argued that the allegations against his client were bailable in nature.

The accused allegedly did not reveal all the facts conveyed by his friend to the investigating agency and misled the investigators that co-accused Deepak was driving during the incident. He allegedly helped with the disappearance of evidence of offence and helped to harbour the accused with the intention of screening them.

The court noted that all these “allegations seem to have come forth only after the act was allegedly committed by the co-accused. At this stage, there seems to be no document in the form of CDR/CCTV footage etc. produced by the investigating agency to show any prior meeting of minds of accused Ashutosh with the co-accused to commit the act before he received the alleged call from co-accused Ankush at 4.56 am,” the court said.

Police alleged that all accused intentionally caused the accident and the woman was dragged for a very long distance by the offending vehicle, leading to her death. They have also been accused of causing disappearance of evidence with the intention to save themselves.

So far, seven persons have been accused in this case wherein police have invoked the murder section. Accused Ankush, who surrendered before police, was granted bail.