Kanjhawala death case: Delhi court grants bail to man who misled police by saying he was driving offending vehicle

New Delhi: Delhi's Rohini Court granted bail to accused Deepak Khanna in Kanjhawala hit-and-run case.

According to Delhi Police, the accused was falsely deposed before the police that he was driving the offending vehicle in order to save the accused who was actually driving the car at the time of the accident and had a driving licence. This matter is related to dragging a girl beneath the car for 13 kilometres on the night of December 31 2022 and January 1, 2023.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Neeraj Gaur granted bail to accused Deepak Khanna after considering the facts and submissions made by the counsel.

While granting bail the court noted, "The allegations against the applicant/accused do not reveal that he was in Conspiracy with other accused persons for the graver offence under section 302 IPC."
"The charge sheet against him is only u/s 201/212/182 IPC r/W conspiracy to commit these offences. Offences under Section 201/212/182 IPC are bailable offences," the court said.

"In case of bailable offences, the bail has to be granted mandatorily and not as a matter of concession," ASJ Neeraj Gaur observed.

Therefore, the application is allowed and the accused is admitted to bail on furnishing of a bond in the sum of Rs 25,000 with one surety in the like amount, the court ordered on May 12.

Advocate JP Singh appeared for accused Deepak Khanna and submitted that the accused is in custody since January 1, 2023. The co-accused Ankush Khanna and Ashutosh Bhardwaj have already been granted bail by the court. The allegations against Deepak are the same as those of the above two accused.

Advocate Singh argued that the applicant Deepak has not been charge-sheeted for any non-bailable offence and he is entitled to bail as a matter of right.

On the other hand, the bail plea was opposed by the Additional public prosecutor (APP) on the ground that the allegations are serious in nature.

The APP argued that the accused was in conspiracy with the other accused persons in respect of serious offences hence bail may not be granted.

The court also took note of the charge sheet which said that applicant accused Deepak Khanna initially came forward and falsely projected himself to the police that it was he who
was driving the offending car.

A criminal conspiracy between co-accused Ashutosh Bhardwaj (the possession owner of the offending car) was hatched to save accused Amit Khanna alongwith accused Ankush (who is the brother of accused Amit Khanna), the court noted.

Accused Deepak Khanna was promised to be given some monetary benefit for deposing falsely before the police to mislead the investigation, the police said.

Accused Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun and Manoj Mittal have been charge-sheeted under section 302/201/212/34/120B/182 of the Indian Penal Code. (ANI)