'Panicked after crash...': BMW crash accused on 19-km hospital detour killing Delhi official

The accused, Gaganpreet, 38, a resident of Gurugram, said during questioning that she took the victim to the hospital where her children had been admitted during the pandemic, Police said.

The woman accused in the BMW crash that killed a senior government officer told investigators she panicked at the accident site and drove nearly 19 km to a hospital she was familiar with from the Covid-19 period, police said on Monday.

Deputy Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Navjot Singh, 52, who lived in Hari Nagar, died in the accident on the Ring Road near Delhi Cantonment Metro station on Sunday afternoon. His wife, Sandeep Kaur, was severely injured as the couple made their way home after visiting Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.

According to police sources, the accused, 38-year-old Gaganpreet of Gurugram, said during interrogation that she chose the hospital where her children had once been admitted during the pandemic. She admitted she could not remember how the crash occurred, only that she was pulled out of the car by people who had gathered around.

Her husband, their two young children aged six and four, and a domestic help were also with her in the BMW at the time of the accident.

Investigators added that her family is known to have links with the hospital where Singh and his wife were eventually taken.

A tempo driver named Gulfam told police that passersby placed the injured couple into his vehicle before the accused joined them and directed him to drive all the way to the hospital in GTB Nagar, nearly 19 km from the crash site.

Sandeep Kaur, in her statement, recalled, “I was constantly requesting them to take us to the nearest hospital as my husband was unconscious and needed immediate treatment. Instead, the lady took us to a small hospital in GTB Nagar.”

Police said Gaganpreet helps her husband in his cloth-based horse saddle manufacturing business. Authorities are awaiting the results of her blood sample test, which will determine whether she was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.