There is a lock on Deepak Khanna’s house in Mangolpuri since a 20-year-old woman died – after a car allegedly driven by him dragged her for several kilometres – in Delhi’s Sultanpuri on the first day of the new year. The 26-year-old’s neighbours don’t know much about him, except that his other name is “Kaalu”, that he drove a Gramin Sewa vehicle for a living, that his parents died years ago, and that he lived with his brother.
While new details continue to emerge in the probe, the police were on Thursday granted another four days of custody of the five suspects – all of them childhood friends. They include Deepak, his cousin Amit Khanna, Manoj Mittal, Mithun and Krishna. Except Mittal, the rest live in Mangolpuri.
Newslaundry visited their neighbourhoods in an attempt to track the stories of these men, who continue to be subjects of much media attention amid outrage over the incident. And except Krishna’s, the others’ houses were locked.
Amit, 25 years old
"They behaved well with us. Sometimes there were some issues. Otherwise there was not much engagement,” said a tenant residing in the same building as Amit, who lives with his brother Ankush in Mangolpuri’s X block.
Amit used to do odd jobs for a living, such as getting bank accounts or credit cards made for a commission, according to his neighbours. His brother Ankush, like Deepak, drives a Gramin Sewa vehicle.
Ankush hasn’t been seen in the neighbourhood either since the incident. His father died years ago and his mother lives in Punjab.
“Both the brothers used to spend most of their time in the room. Sometimes their mother used to visit the place. They never had any fight or quarrel with us…but they did wrong to the girl. If she came under the car then they should have stopped,” said Rashmi, a neighbour.
Manoj, 27 years old
“He used to create a ruckus after getting drunk and apologise in the morning.”
That’s how neighbours recall Manoj, who lives on the second floor of a five-storey building in Krishna Vihar near the Sultanpuri police station and operates a shop on rent.
“He had bought this house some five years ago. His mother died one year ago. About two years ago, he got married. His wife is a government employee. She rarely comes here. Mittal is a drunkard. Whenever he was drunk, he became aggressive and used to utter whatever he wanted to. The next morning, he would turn gentle and greet people with manners before leaving for work. But I never thought he would commit such a big crime,” said Harish Kumar, a 51-year-old who lives in the same building.
“There was hardly a day when Mittal came without getting drunk. After getting drunk, he used to punch on the wall in my room. He used to call my wife. He used to smoke cigarettes sitting in front of my room. Sometimes his condition got so bad that he could not even climb the stairs. His friends used to come to help. Sometimes to get the gate opened, he used to bang on it late at night,” said Krishna, another neighbour.
“When his wife stayed with him, he did not drink. She stayed here only for four or five days the whole year.”
Girdhari Verma, who lives on the ground floor, claimed that Manoj misbehaved with him and his wife. He said that he regrets not complaining to the police against him. He alleged that Manoj also ran a betting den but the police never took action against him.
Several media reports stated that Manoj was linked to the BJP, but the party’s local leader Satveer Singh said he never saw him at any of the party’s meetings.
Krishna, 23 years old
The youngest of three brothers, Krishna is from UP’s Mathura and works as a technician at an office in Connaught Place. His father sells chhole bhature.
When Newslaundry visited his house, the family was watching a news telecast on the incident on television. As Krishna’s picture appeared on screen as one of the suspects, his mother broke down. “The company he kept destroyed him.”
Police are yet to speak to his family.
“We came to know through television…he had left after telling us that he was going for a party. We haven’t spoken to him since the incident. We want to meet him once, but have you seen how angry people are? If we go to meet him and someone gets to know, people will kill us. That’s why we are not going outside,” said his brother Mukesh.
“They have not done anything wrong to the girl, contrary to what the news channels are showing. Whatever happened, happened by chance. All we want is for everyone to get justice.”
Mithun, 27 years old
Locally known as “Candy”, Mithun is from UP and works as a barber at a local salon. His house in X block was locked when Newslaundry visited the area. He also runs a cigarette shop near the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, nearly 100 metres away from his residence.
His neighbour Naresh said that he has two brothers and two sisters.
“Amit, Mithun, Deepak and Krishna are real friends. They all are poor. Mittal was the only one who was rich. They all went to the party because of him,” said a woman at the cigarette shop. She also blamed the victim, Anjali, for partying late at night.
Newslaundry had earlier met Anjali’s relatives at her funeral. Hitting out at the Delhi police and the BJP government, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has promised Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family and a government job to the family – Anjali was the sole breadwinner.
“Police tried to suppress the case from the very beginning. Now they have brought a different story. What is important here is that Anjali was murdered, not what she was doing at the time of the incident…it’s a story just to get away from questions,” said Meera Devi, her aunt.
Update at 2.17 pm, Jan 6: It was not Deepak but his cousin Amit who was allegedly behind the wheel at the time of the incident and the former allegedly took the blame as the latter was without a driving license, police have now told the media. Ashutosh, the owner of the car, was arrested on Friday.
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