BMW crash victim taken to distant hospital deliberately, says Delhi Police

Navjot Singh, a 52-year-old finance ministry official, who was run over by a speeding BMW near Dhaula Kuan last September, was deliberately taken to a distant hospital, and the accident occurred because of the driver's fault, the Delhi Police informed a court here.

Judicial Magistrate Ankit Garg on Thursday heard the city police's submission while taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed in December last year.

The court said, "Inspector Shyoram submits that in the present case, the accident happened due to the fault of the accused (BMW driver Gaganpreet Makkad) and she deliberately took the accused to a distant hospital."  "Therefore, she has been charge-sheeted under BNS Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) along with sections 281 (rash driving), 125 B (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 238 A (causing disappearance of evidence)."  The court noted the police officer's submissions that a postmortem report had been filed, according to which the victim could have died on the spot or have survived for 5-15 minutes post the accident, as there was "huge blood loss".

It also noted that the accident happened at 1.30 pm, following which Makkad took the victim to the hospital at 1.37 pm and reached there by 2.15 pm.

The magistrate said, "I have heard the submissions on the point of cognisance. Offence punishable under BNS Section 105, along with Sections 281/125B and 238A, has been pressed in the chargesheet."  "I have perused the chargesheet and the documents annexed with the chargesheet. It prima facie discloses commission of offence. I take cognisance of the offence," the magistrate said.

The court then issued summons to the accused and posted the matter for further proceedings on February 2.

On September 14 last year, Singh, a deputy secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, was killed, and three people, including his wife, were injured after the BMW driven by Makkad allegedly hit his motorcycle near Delhi Cantonment Metro Station on Ring Road.

Earlier, in a 400-page chargesheet filed before Judicial Magistrate Ankit Garg, police alleged that the accused deliberately delayed providing critical medical assistance to the victim.

It said the accident occurred around 1.30 pm when Makkad's overspeeding BMW X5, allegedly being driven at a speed of 100-110 kmph, crashed into a metro pillar near Delhi Cantonment Metro Station on Ring Road, overturned, and rammed into the Hari Nagar resident's motorcycle.

The final report alleged that instead of taking the accident victims to nearby hospitals such as the Delhi Cantonment Hospital or the AIIMS Trauma Centre, which were 10-15 minutes away, Makkad took the injured to Nulife Hospital in GTB Nagar, around 20 km from the crash site. It took them 23 minutes to reach the hospital.

It described Nulife Hospital as "a small two-storey nursing home with limited facilities" and alleged that the delay resulted in the "wastage of the golden hour of trauma care".