Cop crushed to death in horrific Delhi road rage

A 30-year-old Delhi Police constable on duty was brutally killed in the early hours of Sunday after a recklessly driven four-wheeler was deliberately rammed into the victim’s motorbike, dragged him nearly 10 metres, and smashed him into a parked car — all because the policeman gestured the driver to slow down — police officers said on Sunday. The road rage incident happened in the Veena Enclave area, near Nangloi, west Delhi.
Police said the victim, identified as Sandeep (single name), was in plain clothes but on duty at the time of his death. Police are yet to nab the driver of the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R but have caught a second occupant of the vehicle. Sandeep suffered multiple injuries, including serious ones to his head, officers said. He was declared dead on arrival at a private hospital in Paschim Vihar, they added.
Joint commissioner of police (western range), Jatin Narwal, said the crime happened around 2am on Sunday. The officer said a couple of other policemen, also on duty, were accompanying Sandeep at the time of the incident on separate motorcycles. They were flatmates and lived in a rented accommodation in the Nangloi area. The officer said they were heading towards the Nangloi railway crossing from the police station and were in plain clothes as surprise night patrolling was underway in the neighbourhood.
“Sandeep spotted a Wagon R car being driven rashly and negligently. There was some exchange of words between him and the suspects. As Sandeep took a left turn and went onto the railway station road, the car driver accelerated and hit his bike from behind, dragging him for about 10 metres before eventually hitting another parked car. Sandeep was crushed between the two cars and suffered severe head injuries,” said joint CP Narwal.
The driver fled the scene, abandoning the vehicle, but the second occupant, identified as Sittu (single name), was caught by Sandeep’s colleagues. The policemen rushed Sandeep to a nearby hospital in the same car. Sittu fled when the men were busy admitting their injured colleague to the hospital. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Dharmendra Gulia, who was previously booked twice for drinking publicly in 2018 and 2019.
Sittu was caught later in the day from the outer Delhi area while the main accused continued to evade arrest, police said. A murder case was registered under section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Nangloi police station.
As the first hospital was not equipped to handle the serious injuries sustained by the victim, the doctors referred him to a bigger hospital in Paschim Vihar, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Deputy commissioner of police (outer) Jimmy Chiram said that according to the CCTV camera footage of the spot, the constable took a left turn in a lane and indicated the car driver to slow down. In the purported video, which was seen by HT, the car driver suddenly accelerates and hits the motorbike. What happened after was not within the sight of the particular CCTV camera and, hence, not seen in the video.
“Sandeep sustained head injuries leading to his death. We have registered a case of murder and are investigating it. Our teams are conducting raids to arrest the car driver and book him for killing a policeman on duty,” said Chiram.
Meanwhile, there were also allegations that the two car occupants were bootleggers, and that they killed the policeman intentionally to avoid getting apprehended. Senior police officers said that they were looking into this angle but could not immediately confirm this.
“One of the policemen, who was with Sandeep, mistakenly identified the errant car driver as a person named Jangra, a local bootlegger. However, we verified this and he turned out to be Gulia,” said an officer supervising the investigation.
Sandeep, who was from Rohtak in Haryana, joined the city police in 2018 and is survived by his mother, wife and a five-year-old son. “Delhi Police family pays obeisance to Constable Sandeep, of Nangloi police station, who lost his life in an unfortunate incident. We stand with the departed soul’s bereaved family in this difficult time,” Delhi Police posted on its social media handles.