Kaur was taken into custody at Nulife Hospital in GTB Nagar, where she was undergoing medical treatment.
File Photo: IANS
A 38-year-old woman, Gaganpreet Kaur, who was allegedly driving the BMW car that fatally struck a senior Finance Ministry officer, Navjot Singh, in Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan area, was arrested by the police and later sent to two days of judicial custody on Monday.
Kaur was taken into custody at Nulife Hospital in GTB Nagar, where she was undergoing medical treatment.
Advertisement
“Our team has arrested her for further questioning and legal action,” a senior police officer said.
Advertisement
Singh, along with his wife, Sandeep, who also sustained major injuries in the road accident, was admitted to the same hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
On Monday, the police registered an FIR in connection with the case based on a complaint of the wife of the deceased.
Sandeep, in her statement to the police, alleged that after the collision, she repeatedly pleaded with the woman driver to take them to a nearest hospital after her husband lost consciousness and needed urgent first aid, instead she took them to a medical centre that was almost 22 km away from the accident site.
It is also alleged that the injured were made to wait on a stretcher for quite a while before they were provided medical attention. The victim said, after her son arrived at the hospital, she and her husband were shifted to Venkateshwar Hospital located in Delhi’s Dwarka sub-city.
Sandeep told the police that Gaganpreet Kaur was driving the blue BMW, bearing registration number 0008, at the time of the accident when the vehicle overturned.
Based on the statement of Sandeep, the police registered a case of culpable homicide under Section 238 of the BNS Act, which is related to the destruction of evidence or providing false information to shield an offender, and initiated a probe into the matter.
Eyewitnesses reported that the BMW, allegedly driven by Gaganpreet with her husband seated beside her, first hit the central verge before ramming into Singh’s motorcycle near Metro pillar number 67 on the Ring Road near Delhi Cantt Metro station. The collision pushed the motorcycle towards a moving bus resulting in another collision with the big vehicle.
The investigators believe that the woman at the wheel lost her control over the speeding vehicle.
Following the accident, Gaganpreet, along with her husband and their two children, took the injured couple to a private medical facility at GTB Nagar in North Delhi, instead of rushing them to a nearby hospital.
According to the claims made by a friend of the deceased, the hospital where the accused took them to is owned by her kin.
The Delhi Police said, “Soon after the crash, a PCR van received three calls reporting a traffic jam near Delhi Cantt Metro Station. “Upon reaching the spot, officers found the BMW turned sideways and the motorcycle lying near the divider. Later, GTB Nagar Hospital informed us that Navjot Singh had succumbed to his injuries,” the police said.
Both Gaganpreet and her husband, who are into the leather accessories business and are residents of Gurugram, sustained injuries.
As part of the investigation, Gaganpreet’s blood samples have been sent for alcohol testing, and CCTV footage of the vicinity is being scrutinised to gather details in this case.
During the sustained interrogation, Gaganpreet has denied any wrongdoing in the accident. A senior police officer said that Gaganpreet told the investigators that she had taken the injured couple to that facility because her daughter had received treatment there during the pandemic.
However, it was reported earlier that Gaganpreet’s father, Javinder Singh, was a director at Nulife Hospital and Maternity Centre in GTB Nagar, which police believe could be a possible reason she brought the injured couple there.
Additionally, when questioned about not making a PCR call after the accident, she told investigators that she was in shock from the incident and assumed someone else might have already alerted the police.
She disclosed that five people were inside the luxury car at the time of the accident—herself, her husband, their six-year-old daughter, their four-year-old son, and a house help.
Gaganpreet said that after the crash, she left her husband and kids behind in the car and moved out with the intention to help the victims. She also claimed that the complainant was not in the right state of mind and was asking to be taken to a different hospital.
Advertisement
