BMW crash: Accused faces culpable homicide; Finance ministry official cremated

NEW DELHI, Sep 16: The woman arrested for driving the BMW that killed a senior finance ministry official here, along with her husband, failed to inform police while taking the victims to a distant hospital, prompting investigators to add charges of culpable homicide and evidence tampering against the duo, police said on Tuesday.
Navjot Singh (52), a deputy secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, was killed on Sunday afternoon when his motorcycle was hit by a BMW car while he was returning from the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara with his wife, Sandeep Kaur. While Singh died, his wife was seriously injured in the incident.
Police said they added sections relating to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing disappearance of evidence as the accused and her husband decided to take Singh and his wife, Sandeep Kaur, to a hospital more than 19 km away from Dhaula Kuan, where the incident took place.
Furthermore, they also did not make a single PCR call to alert the police, he added.“They themselves decided to take the couple to Nulife Hospital, more than 19 km away from the accident site and did not provide them medical care at the earliest despite the presence of big hospitals nearby,” a senior police officer said.“The couple also did not make any PCR call regarding the accident and did not prompt police, who could have offered assistance or taken them to a nearby hospital. Thus, we have invoked sections 105 and 238 apart from 281 and 125 B,” he added.
Meanwhile, police said during interrogation, Gaganpreet told investigators that she was in a state of panic after the crash and could not recall how it happened.When questioned why she did not take the injured couple to a nearby hospital, she claimed that she panicked and was familiar with Nulife Hospital as her children had been treated there during the COVID-19 pandemic, the officer added.
Meanwhile, Senior finance ministry official Navjot Singh was cremated on Tuesday in the presence of family members and relatives, even as police said the blood sample of the main accused, Gaganpreet, has tested negative for alcohol.Singh’s body was first taken to the Venkateshwar Hospital in Dwarka, where his wife is undergoing treatment for multiple injuries sustained in the accident. After the family members paid their respects at the hospital, the body was brought to his Hari Nagar residence and later, taken for the last rites. (PTI)