The accused in the Nikki Yadav murder case, Sahil Gehlot, told police on Wednesday that he was in "double mind" and could not decide on whether to go with his live-in partner or marry the woman his parents had arranged for him.
According to the charges, Gehlot strangled his live-in partner Nikki Yadav and stuffed her body inside a refrigerator following a heated argument. However, despite his claims, 24-year-old Gehlot was seen celebrating his engagement party, held on February 9, by dancing with his friends.
That night he allegedly strangulated Yadav to death. The next morning, Gehlot got married to the woman his family arranged for him.
According to the police, the crime came to light only on February 14 when the body of 23-year-old Nikki Yadav was recovered from the refrigerator following Gehlot's questioning.
Police said after the ceremony, Gehlot went to Nikki Yadav's rented house in Uttam Nagar. Yadav then managed to convince him to go on a short trip before his marriage, the accused told police.
"Yadav had already made plans that she wanted to go to Goa with him and had already booked her tickets but when she tried booking Gehlot's ticket through a travel application, his ticket could not be booked. So they changed the plan and decided to visit Himachal Pradesh."
"They went to Nizamuddin railway station in his car where they found out that they will have to board a bus from Anand Vihar bus Terminus but on reaching there, they were informed that the bus will start from the Kashmere Gate ISBT," the officer said.
After reaching Kashmere Gate, the accused parked his car and both of them had a conversation about his scheduled wedding, police said.
Gehlot was under pressure from his family to marry the woman they had fixed his marriage with. "His wedding plan made her angry and she showed her displeasure. Infuriated, Gehlot strangled her and took her body to his dabha in a village," the officer said.
However, police believe Gehlot was planning to get rid of Yadav and was trying to mislead her by assuring her that they would go for a trip. "He said he was in double mind. These are all his versions because through local enquiries, we came to know that he was dancing and having fun during his engagement. So, it is important to corroborate his version with strong evidence including CCTVs, technical evidence along with a forensic examination to make this a strong case. The exact time when he killed her has not been revealed by him yet," the officer said.
Yadav's body was recovered on Tuesday morning from the refrigerator at the eatery, four days after the murder. According to the autopsy report, the cause of death is strangulation and no other injury marks were found on her body.
"Since the body was kept inside the fridge for over four days, it was decomposing at a very slow pace. Right now, it is difficult to ascertain the exact time of her death. However, this is just the preliminary opinion, the final postmortem report is awaited, which will take some time, a source said.
CCTV visuals of Yadav
The investigating officers have also retrieved footage from CCTV cameras that showed Nikki Yadav in her rented house hours before she was allegedly killed by Gehlot.
The CCTV footage retrieved by the Delhi Police is from February 9, the day of Gehlot's engagement. The video shows Yadav taking clothes upstairs to her rented home at around 1.10 pm. The second footage, timestamped at 9.27 pm, shows her going out of the building, but returning within a minute, she returned.
However, it is not clear why she went out of the building for a minute. She was all alone in the building.
A senior police officer said, "We are looking into the CCTV footage and also scanning for more to collect evidence and ascertain the sequence of events that unfolded on the day of the murder."
(With inputs from PTI)