The young woman, strangled by her boyfriend with a phone charging data cable after an argument over his marriage to another woman - slated for the same day - and her body stuffed into his dhaba's fridge, was seen, in two CCTV cameras' footage, entering her residence on February 9, just hours before she was killed,
In the ghastly incident, similar to that of the Shraddha Walkar murder, Nikki Yadav, a resident of Haryana's Jhajjar and presently residing at a rented accommodation in west Delhi was strangled by accused Sahil Gehlot, a resident of Mitraon village hours before his wedding to another woman fixed by his parents.
The murder was committed near the Kashmiri Gate area and Gehlot, a B. Pharma graduate, then drove with the dead body all the way to his dhaba - a distance of around 36 km - where he stuffed her body in a refrigerator and went on with his wedding.
Meanwhile, Nikki's body was handed over to his family on Wednesday afternoon after an autopsy. Sources said that the report opined that she was strangled to death.
According to police, on February 10, an input was received that a person named Sahil Gehlot had killed his girlfriend and married another girl on the day of murder.
"A police team was formed and on checking, no case or complaint about any missing girl was found reported. The team reached Mitraon village in search of the accused Gehlot, but his mobile phone was found switched off and he was not present in his house. Intensive search was made in the village and nearby area," Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, Ravindra Singh Yadav said.
However, Gehlot was nabbed by police from Kair village crossing.
"On interrogation, initially, the accused tried to mislead the police. But on sustained interrogation, he disclosed that he had killed his girlfriend, Nikki Yadav, in the intervening night of February 9 and 10 Feb and kept her dead body in a refrigerator at his dhaba in a vacant plot situated on the outskirts of village Mitraon," Yadav said.
Gehlot further disclosed that in 2018, he met the woman at a coaching centre in Uttam Nagar area of west Delhi where he had joined to prepare for SSC exams.
"At that time, Nikki was also preparing for a medical entrance examination in Akash Institute at Uttam Nagar. Both used to travel to their respective institutes daily in the same bus, and they became friends, and later on fell in love," said the Special CP.
"The duo started meeting before and after the coaching classes. In February 2018 the accused took admission in D. Pharma in Galgotia College at Greater Noida and she also took admission in the same college in BA (English Hons.). Thereafter, both of them started living together at Greater Noida in a rented house. They became very close to each other and also travelled to several places such as Manali, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun etc," said the official.
However, during Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, they returned to their homes and after the end of the lockdown, they again started living together in a rented house in Dwarka area.
"The accused did not inform his family members about this relationship. His family was putting pressure on him to get married with some other girl and finally in December 2022, engagement and marriage of the accused with another girl were fixed for February 9 and 10," the Special CP said.
Gehlot did not inform Nikki about his engagement or marriage plans. "Somehow she came to know about this and confronted the accused and arguments started between the two. The accused strangulated the deceased with the help of a data cable of his mobile phone kept in his car. Thereafter, he went to the dhaba owned by him and put her dead body in a refrigerator," he said, adding that Gehlot then went back to his home and solemnised his marriage with another woman.