The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday alleged that one of the persons accused of having caused the death of a woman in a road accident in Delhi is a Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the Delhi Police were covering up the case due to the involvement of BJP member Manoj Mittal.

The party tweeted a photo of a hoarding outside the Sultanpuri police station in outer Delhi, which showed a photo of Mittal. It claimed that he is currently in custody in the same police station.

The AAP staged protests outside Saxena’s residence and sought his resignation in connection with the case.

In the early hours of Sunday, the woman was killed after her scooter was hit by a car. She was dragged by the vehicle from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala for nearly 12 kilometres after she got stuck in its wheels. The woman’s naked body was rescued later.

However, the police have ruled out a sexual assault angle in the case, saying that her clothes got torn off as she was dragged on the road after the accident.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer Delhi) Harendra Singh said that the police would take action against those who spread misinformation that the woman had been sexually assaulted.

Bharadwaj, however, questioned why the police filed the case under bailable provisions such as causing death by negligence. “DCP Harendra Singh says that a medical examination is needed to find out if the accused persons were drunk,” he said. “But the same person asserts that the woman was not raped. How does he know? Is he a doctor?”

The AAP leader demanded the removal of Saxena from the post of lieutenant governor. “The lieutenant governor said that the incident made him hang his head in shame,” he said. “If that had really been the case, then the errant police officers would have been removed from service and would have been sitting at home by now.”

Bharadwaj claimed that a witness to the incident called the police 22 times and even came across police control room vans while following the car of the accused persons. “But none of the vans were willing to stop the car,” he said. “The BJP has reduced our institutions to this state.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also said that the incident was a “rarest of rare” case and the culprits should get capital punishment. “The guilty should be punished, no matter how politically well-connected they are,” he said.

Responding to the AAP’s allegations, the Delhi BJP’s media cell head Harish Khurana said that the accused persons have been arrested and that the guilty persons should be punished irrespective of the party they belong to, according to PTI.

Three-day police custody for accused persons

Meanwhile, a Delhi court remanded the five accused persons in the case to police custody for three days, according to PTI.

Apart from Mittal, the other men facing allegations in the case are Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan and Mithun. They have been booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, causing death by negligence and criminal conspiracy.

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda said that fresh charges could also be invoked against them. He said that a medical board has been set up to carry out a postmortem examination.