New Delhi/IBNS: The men who dragged a 20-year-old woman for 13 km under their car in Delhi on New Year's morning, "knew she was stuck under," the victim's friend told reporters Tuesday.  

The friend named Nidhi, who accompanied Anjali Singh to a New Year party, was riding pillion in the same scooty, the police found during the investigation.

Nidhi, who apparently had a fight with Anjali, had fallen when the car allegedly hit the scooty.

After seeing Anjali being dragged under the car, she went home in shock.

"The Baleno hit us head-on. I fell to one side and she fell towards the front," Nidhi told reporters.

"My friend got stuck under the car. The men knew that a girl had rolled under their car. They deliberately ran over her. They knew. The girl was stuck under the car and she was screaming. I felt so hopeless that I went home," she told reporters this evening as her friend's body was cremated.

"I went home and didn't tell anything to anyone. I had panicked. I cried a lot. They drove forward and back twice. Forward and back. Twice. She was on her back. Probably got stuck into something. So they went forward and back. Then they just went ahead, dragging her under the car," Nidhi added.

Anjali's leg had got stuck in the axle.

The five men in the car, who are under arrest, have told the police that they had panicked after hitting the scooty and had no idea that the woman was stuck in the undercarriage.

They admitted to being drunk, having polished off two bottles of alcohol on way back from Haryana's Murthal. Also, since the music in the car was loud, they heard nothing, they said.

The 20-year-old, breadwinner for a family of eight, was cremated today amid horror and protests of a shocked city.

The postmortem examination has ruled out sexual assault, a claim made by the family in view of her unclothed body. Her clothes had ripped off and her skin was peeled when the body was found, the outcome of being dragged in the undercarriage for 13 km, the police said.

The preliminary autopsy report indicated that the body bore extensive blunt trauma injuries.

The men have been accused of culpable homicide, but further investigations are on.