Company director, contractor knew of biker’s fall into pit, did nothing: Delhi Police

NEW DELHI: Police have named three people as accused in its chargesheet in the Feb 6 Janakpuri pit death case.

In an 877-page document filed in a Dwarka court on April 7, cops said the three — Himanshu Gupta, the now-suspended director of the company responsible for maintaining the Delhi Jal Board pit; Rajesh Kumar, a sub-contractor; and Yogesh, a labourer — were aware that Kamal Dhyani, the biker, had fallen into it, but did not to alert the authorities, leading to his death.

Police have recorded statements of over 30 witnesses, including an eyewitness who saw Dhyani (25), who was returning home from his office in Rohini, fall into the uncovered 14-foot-deep pit and the woman who first alerted cops about it.

“Call record details cited in the chargesheet contain purported conversations between Gupta and Kumar, in which they allegedly discussed the accident immediately after it took place and again the following morning,” sources said.

An eyewitness, Vipin Singh, saw the motorcycle fall into the pit and alerted a guard at a nearby residential complex, who informed Yogesh, the labourer. He called up Kumar, who came to the spot and saw Dhyani lying in the pit with the motorcycle’s headlight still on. He alerted Gupta, who reached the site from his Tri Nagar residence, police said.

Kumar allegedly directed Yogesh to put up green sheets on the pit and place barricades around it to make it seem that all safety protocols had been followed, an act investigators said amounted to tampering with evidence. The former then directed the labourer to leave the city.

Though the accident took place around midnight on Feb 6, it was reported to police only after eight hours by a woman who was taking her children to school the next morning, cops noted.

The case was initially registered under Section 105 of BNS (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), but additional charges were later added, including 61(2) (criminal conspiracy, 238 B (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 3(5) (common intention), and 340 (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine). The forgery charge was included after police allegedly found Gupta in possession of fake identity documents while he was absconding. He was later arrested in Udaipur.

Dhyani, who was a resident of Palam, left office at 11 pm and told his family at 11.50 pm that he was near home. However, he soon stopped answering calls. His body was found the next morning.
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