Delhi’s hit-and-drag horror: What we know so far

News Network
January 3, 2023

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In the early hours of Sunday, January 1, while most were ringing in the new year in Delhi, a woman's body was found abandoned on the side of the road with no clothes. The 20-year-old, teh sole breadwinner of her family, was returning home on a scooter when her vehicle was hit by a car. The occupants of the car in, what seems to be an attempt to flee, drove away with the woman's body stuck in the wheels dragged with the car for nearly 12 km from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.

The gruesome nature of the incident led to a political slugfest in the nation's capital with fingers being pointed at the Delhi police, and protests by the kin of the victim and AAP over shoddy work by teh law enforcement in the case. Parallels were even drawn to the 2012 Nirbhaya case that remained fresh in public memory a decade since the horrific gang-rape took place. 

Here is all that has happened so far in the Delhi hit-and-run case. 

Drunk driving, body trapped under borrowed car - What the FIR says

As per the FIR filed by the police, the men who were involved in the accident confessed to being drunk. Further, NDTV reported that according to the FIR, the woman's body was tangled in the undercarriage of the car after she fell from her two-wheeler and the men had already driven nearly 12 km before they were aware of the same.  

The five people in the car were Amit and Deepak Khanna, Manoj Mittal, a local BJP leader who has a ration shop, Krishan, an employee at the Spanish Cultural Centre in Connaught Place and Mithun, a hairdresser. 

The FIR notes that the police tried to track down the owner of the vehicle, at which time, they found out that it was owned by an individual named Lokesh, who had lent to someone called Ashutosh, who in turn had given it to his friends - the Khannas, who were present in the vehicle at the time of the accident. 

A Delhi court sent all five of the accused to three-day police custody while officers investigate the matter. 

All five have been named under IPC sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) over the accident. 

Removed body and fled 

Those in the car described how the accident went down.

"They said they were going on a narrow lane and a girl, approaching on her scooter, met with an accident. Since no one raised an alarm, they kept driving. It was later they realised that something was stuck in the car wheel and saw a woman’s body after driving for a few kilometres. They removed the body from the car and fled from the scene," an official familiar with th investigation told The Times of India.

Pillion rider was friend, fled scene of accident 

Police investigation also showed that there were two girls on the scooty on the night of the accident. The pillion rider reportedly sustained minor injuries and allegedly fled the scene because she was afraid. Police have tracked her down, and her statement is being taken.

Where were the police? An eyewitness speaks out 

Deepak Dahiya, the owner of a dairy shop in Ladpur village, northwest Delhi, recounted his version of events on the night of the accident. 

"I heard a car’s noise, and initially it sounded like it’s tyre had burst, but it was still being driven. It was going at the speed of barely 20km per hour, so I could clearly see what was happened. That’s when I saw the body of a girl beneath the car -- between the two left side tyres," he said, speaking to Hindustan Times.

He placed a call to the police control room but was asked to call back in some time. 

"I told them that there were about four-five people in the car, and that I wasn’t sure how dangerous they could be. I thought I will follow them, but not stop them," he added. 

The individual began his pursuit in an electric vehicle. 

"As I started going after them, I realised they were driving very slow, and the body was still attached to the car. It’s difficult to believe that they didn’t know there was something beneath their car. Meanwhile, I was giving almost minute-by-minute updates to the police. I would have called them 18-20 times in the next 45 minutes, of which one call lasted more than 10 minutes," he continued. 

During the pursuit, at one point, Dahiya realized that the body was no longer attached to the car. As the grey Baleno headed towards Begumpur, Dahiya continued following it and saw two PCR vans on the way, but they didn't take any action suggesting Dahiya's calls had not been communicated to them. In Begumpur, Dahiya told officials in a third PCR van what he had seen but they let the vehicle go after initially flagging it, and speaking with the drivers. 

"Within minutes of returning to the shop, I saw police and some people on the road rushing to the same stretch I had seen those men driving the Baleno with the body earlier. I followed the police, which led me to the spot where another police team had found the body on the road. I then returned home," he said, adding, "There is little that the police did despite calling them several times. I was following the car right from the start. If police were active the culprits would have been caught from the spot. I have a recording of my conversation with police control room officials." 

Police provide their justifications 

Special commissioner of police Dependra Pathak confirmed that Dahiya made the calls which helped them track down the vehicle. He added that the incident with the third PCR van would be probed. 

The police probe has shown that the vehicle was able to avoid two permanent police pickets because they were on the other side of the carriageway and since the car was travelling at a steady speed of 40-50 kmph, they didn't raise any suspicion. Deepak, who was at the wheel, was familiar with the routes as well as police presence, and therefore managed to drive around for 90 minutes. 

The police are going to submit their findings in the report by December 3 evening. 

Girl's family suspects rape and murder

While the police have investigated the accident, the girl's mother alleged that she was raped and killed. 

"My daughter was wearing an inner, a T-shirt, a jacket and pants. How come not a single cloth was found on her body? I heard that her bones were visible and legs were gone. The culprits dumped her body and left," Times of India reported her mother alleging. 

Her uncle added, "The condition of the body shows she was sexually assaulted. We want proper investigation in the matter and justice for our daughter." 
 

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News Network
March 28,2025

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When the ground violently shook beneath his feet, Prem Kishore Mohanty, an Indian expatriate in Bangkok, was attending his five-year-old daughter's school sports day. What began as a routine event—children competing, parents cheering—quickly turned into a moment of panic as tremors struck.

"I felt my head spinning and had to sit down. The overhead lights swayed, and chairs moved," said Mr. Mohanty, 44. The school's PA system quickly announced an emergency evacuation, directing everyone to the outdoor field while warning against using nearby lanes lined with high-rise towers.

Water from rooftop swimming pools, including those at the InterContinental Bangkok, cascaded down buildings, as captured in viral videos.

Fear and Chaos as Bangkok Shakes
The 7.7-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter in Myanmar, sent powerful tremors into Thailand, bringing Bangkok to an abrupt standstill. Public transport was suspended, traffic snarled, and people evacuated buildings, waiting anxiously for the all-clear.

Earthquakes are rare in Bangkok, a city more accustomed to heat and monsoons than seismic shocks. For the Mohanty family, who live in a high-rise apartment in Sukhumvit, confusion and fear gripped them as the evacuation began.

"It was terrifying. We were told to take the fire escape stairwell and wait outside. There was no time to think," Mr. Mohanty recalled.

Now safe, he remains shaken by the unexpected jolt that turned a normal day into a moment of chaos for his family and thousands across the city.

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Agencies
March 24,2025

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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that the tight Israeli blockade on the entry of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip is pushing the coastal territory closer to an acute hunger crisis.

Philippe Lazzarini made the remarks in a social media post, in which he noted that the siege, which is preventing food, medicines, water and fuel from entering the region, has lasted longer than what was in place in the first phase of the war.

Israel has banned the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 4, following the expiry of the first phase of a ceasefire and an agreement with Hamas resistance movement on the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners.

Lazzarini warned that Gaza’s population depends on imports via Israeli-occupied territories for their survival.

“Every day that passes without the entry of aid means more children go to bed hungry, diseases spread & deprivation deepens,” he said.

“Every day without food inches Gaza closer to an acute hunger crisis,” the UNRWA chief noted.

Lazzarini described the banning of aid as a collective punishment on Gaza’s population – the vast majority of which are children, women and ordinary men.

He called for the siege to be lifted and for humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to be brought into Gaza “uninterrupted and at scale.”

Backed by the United States and its Western allies, Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the Israeli regime in response to its decades-long campaign of oppression against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 50,021 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 113,274 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

On November 21 last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its deadly war on the blockaded coastal sliver.

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Agencies
March 26,2025

The airstrikes led by the United States have killed at least 25 civilians in Yemen over the past week, marking the deadliest week of bombing on the country since the final months of the Washington-backed Saudi war in January 2022.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Yemen Data Project said the 25 civilians were the victims of 38 US-led aerial assaults on March 15-21, adding that 28 people were also injured in the attacks.

The independent tracker also said that 21 out of the 38 US air raids hit non-military, civilian targets.

“Civilian targets hit included: a medical storage facility, a medical center, a school, a wedding hall, residential areas, a cotton gin facility, a health office, Bedouin tents, and Al-Eiman University,” it said.

The deadliest US strike in the first week of US bombing campaign struck a residential area in Yemen’s northwestern Sa'ada province, killing 10 civilians and wounding 11 others, among them children.

The US began bombing Yemen on March 15, a few days after Yemen resumed its operation against Israeli-linked ships in response to Israel’s Gaza aid blockade that violated a ceasefire with the Hamas resistance group.

The Yemeni Armed Forces began their anti-Israel naval campaign in November 2023, a month after the occupying regime waged a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The Yemeni forces halted their attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians in January, when Israel accepted a three-phase Gaza ceasefire.

Two months later, however, Israel unilaterally broke the Gaza truce and resumed its brutal onslaught on the besieged territory.

On Tuesday, Yemeni media reported 17 US strikes on Sa'ada and two more on the nearby 'Amran province.

The reports said American warplanes carried out "aggressive air raids... causing material damage to citizens' property," but gave no details of casualties.

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