New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday informed a city court that the fatal accident in which a 52-year-old Finance Ministry official was run over by a speeding BMW near Dhaula Kuan last September occurred due to the fault of the driver, who also deliberately took the injured victim to a distant hospital, delaying critical medical care.
Judicial Magistrate Ankit Garg was hearing police submissions while taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed in December against the accused, Gaganpreet Makkad, the driver of the BMW. The court recorded the submission of the investigating officer that the accident was caused by rash and negligent driving and that the accused intentionally avoided taking the victim to the nearest medical facilities.
The court noted that Makkad has been chargesheeted under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), along with Sections 281 (rash driving), 125B (act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 238A (causing disappearance of evidence).
According to the police, the postmortem report indicated that the victim, Navjot Singh, a deputy secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, could have died on the spot or survived for five to fifteen minutes after the crash due to massive blood loss. The court was informed that the accident took place at around 1.30 pm, the victim was moved at 1.37 pm, and the hospital was reached only by 2.15 pm.
After examining the chargesheet and accompanying documents, the magistrate observed that a prima facie case was made out and formally took cognisance of the offences. Summons were issued to the accused, and the matter has been listed for further proceedings on February 2.
The accident occurred on September 14 last year near the Delhi Cantonment Metro Station on Ring Road, when the BMW X5, allegedly being driven at 100–110 kmph, crashed into a metro pillar, overturned, and struck Singh’s motorcycle. Singh was killed, while three others, including his wife, were injured.
In its detailed chargesheet, police alleged that instead of rushing the victims to nearby hospitals such as the Delhi Cantonment Hospital or AIIMS Trauma Centre, both located 10–15 minutes away, the accused took them to Nulife Hospital in GTB Nagar, nearly 20 km from the accident site. Investigators described the facility as a small nursing home with limited infrastructure and said the delay resulted in the loss of the “golden hour” crucial for trauma care.
