Delhi High Court Rejects Amit Khanna’s Bail in 2022 Kanjhawala Hit‑and‑Drag Murder Case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to Amit Khanna, who is accused in the gruesome 2022 Kanjhawala hit‑and‑drag case. Justice Girish Kathpalia, who presided over the hearing, said the seriousness of the alleged crime and the way it was carried out left him no choice but to dismiss the plea.

During the proceedings, the court examined the testimony of Nidhi – the woman who was riding pill‑on the scooter that the deceased was driving at the time of the incident. Nidhi told the bench that the victim was intoxicated, but she also said that Khanna and the other occupants of the car were heavily drunk as well. Her account, coupled with CCTV footage, formed a key part of the court’s reasoning.

The surveillance video showed the offending vehicle being handed over to Khanna. Even after the scooter was struck and the victim’s body got tangled under the car, the footage captured Khanna continuing to drive for several kilometres – roughly thirteen kilometres – before finally stopping. "The gravity and manner in which the murder was allegedly committed dissuade me from granting bail," Justice Kathpalia remarked, before formally dismissing the application.

Khanna’s counsel, Advocate Akshay Bhandari, argued that his client had been in custody since 1 January 2023 and that there was a dearth of solid evidence linking him to the driver’s seat. He highlighted that the initial police reports from 1 January to 6 January made no mention of Khanna as the driver, and that Nidhi’s identification of him emerged only in a third statement recorded a week after the incident, after co‑accused Ashutosh’s disclosure.

The defence also pointed out procedural gaps – the investigating officer had not placed the results of the facial‑recognition system on record, and the CCTV clips, according to them, did not clearly show Khanna’s face. Moreover, they noted that only 14 of the 117 prosecution witnesses had been examined so far, while the remaining co‑accused were already out on bail.

On the other side, Additional Public Prosecutor Sanjeev Sabharwal stressed the brutality of the alleged killing. He said that after the victim was dragged under the car for a distance, the occupants exited, saw her entangled, yet proceeded to drive onward. Besides the CCTV footage and Nidhi’s testimony, the prosecution presented forensic DNA evidence – flesh recovered from the vehicle matched the victim’s DNA.

With these factors weighing heavily, the court concluded that releasing Khanna on bail would be inappropriate at this stage. The bail application was therefore dismissed, and Khanna remains in custody pending further trial proceedings.