Sultanpuri horror
The gruesome death of a 20-year-old woman who was dragged along a 12-km stretch from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala after her two-wheeler was hit by a car in outer Delhi in the wee hours of January 1 has shocked the nation. This is not just another hit-and-run case. The fact that the victim was dragged under the car’s tyres over such a long distance for more than an hour shows sheer laxity on the part of the police personnel on patrol duty. The cops failed to spot and intercept the killer vehicle, even as a couple of witnesses saw the horrifying scene. The incident has also exposed the glaring inadequacy of CCTV surveillance on this stretch. Amid a public clamour for a thorough probe to ascertain dereliction of duty and bring the erring cops to book, the victim’s family has accused the police of shielding the perpetrators and even drawn parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya rape-murder which had triggered a nationwide outrage. The post-mortem report, however, has ruled out sexual assault.
The car occupants did not bother to stop after the collision with the woman’s scooter; what’s worse, they chose to flee, without informing the police, even when they purportedly found the victim’s body stuck under their vehicle an hour or so later. Their rash and callous act snuffed out the life of a woman who was the bread-winner of her family, which includes her ailing mother, four sisters and two younger brothers.
The inquiry into the Sultanpuri incident should be fair and unsparing; the investigating team should not allow itself to be distracted or influenced by the politically motivated war of words. The negligence of police officials at every level needs to be looked into. The case has also turned the spotlight on the safety of two-wheeler riders, particularly those who work at odd hours. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, almost half of the people who lost their lives in road accidents across the country in 2021 were using two-wheelers. Round-the-clock patrolling and electronic monitoring can help reduce the number of such fatalities. Hopefully, exemplary action in the Sultanpuri case will lead to a prompt plugging of the systemic gaps.
