The Delhi Police, in a 400-page chargesheet submitted before Judicial Magistrate First Class Ankit Garg of Patiala House Court last week, claims 52-year-old Navjot Singh, a deputy secretary in the Union finance ministry, was alive for at least 15 minutes after being run over by a BMW in September and could have been saved with timely medical care.
The crash was around 1.30pm on September 14 when Makkad’s speeding BMW crashed into a metro pillar, overturned, and rammed into Singh’s motorcycle. Singh was later shifted to Venkateswara Hospital, where he died.
Citing the postmortem report, the chargesheet, parts of which was assessed by HT, states: “The survival time of the deceased was at least 15 minutes as per the PM report…further details are being clarified…” This detail addresses a gap earlier flagged by a court while granting bail to the accused, Gaganpreet Makkad, on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The court had noted the postmortem report on injury survivability was pending at that time.
The chargesheet alleges Makkad, a Gurugram resident, deliberately delayed critical care. After the crash near Dhaula Kuan on September 14, she bypassed several nearby hospitals, including Delhi Cantonment Hospital and the AIIMS Trauma Centre, and took Singh and his injured wife to Nulife Hospital in GTB Nagar, 20 km away. The journey took 23 minutes, while nearer hospitals were 10-15 minutes away. The chargesheet describes Nulife as “a small two-storey nursing home with limited facilities.”
A speed report from BMW confirmed the car was driven at approximately 100-110 kmph, far above the 50 kmph limit on Ring Road near Delhi Cantonment Metro Station. “The speed made it impossible to control the vehicle…the impact, despite the BMW being one of the sturdiest vehicles, shows the force with which victims were struck,” the chargesheet states.
Police also stated that no fault was found on the part of the ambulance driver and paramedic who reached the spot minutes after the crash, claiming the accused refused their assistance. “The statement of the ambulance driver and paramedic who reached the scene and saw the BMW in an accidental condition…has been taken u/s 180 BNSS…no fault has been found on the ambulance’s part as the accused deliberately refused help and delayed medical assistance,” the chargesheet said.
Police further allege Makkad had links to Nulife Hospital, owned by her distant relatives. “Notices were issued to the hospital administration, and the same revealed Makkad being distantly connected to the hospital…documentary evidence regarding manipulation of medical documents is yet to be collected,” the chargesheet says. It also claims Makkad falsely admitted herself to the ICU despite minor injuries to mislead investigators.
Earlier, on September 24, Delhi Police told a city court that Makkad had deliberately delayed informing the police and “wasted golden hour trauma care” by admitting the victims to a nursing home linked to her family instead of a multispeciality hospital nearby. Opposing her bail plea, additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told the court, “The hospital has a 20% discount, and it is not even a hospital…it is a nursing home…there are multiple hospitals just minutes away from the crash site at Dhaula Kuan…for example, in the midway, there is Base Hospital with much better facilities.”
HT had earlier reported that Javinder Singh, identified by police as Makkad’s father, is listed as a director and promoter of Nulife Advanced Diagnostics Private Limited and Nulife Luxury Realtors Private Limited, both of which share the same registered address as the company that owns Nulife Hospital at House No. 1616, First Floor, Outram Line, GTB Nagar.