The father of Nikki Yadav, 22, who was allegedly strangulated to death by her boyfriend on February 10 and stuffed into a refrigerator of a roadside eatery in Najafgarh, has alleged that the family members of 24-year-old Sahil Gehlot were also involved in his daughter’s murder.
Sunil Yadav, who is in his late forties, on Wednesday said that he was unable to contact his daughter for over eight hours on February 10-11, and found out about her death when he was able to speak to Sahil Gehlot’s father on February 10.
Also Read: CCTV footage of Nikki Yadav entering home emerges. She was killed hours later
“I somehow managed to arrange the contact numbers of Sahil and his parents. I had called his father after we were unable to reach out to Nikki even after eight hours. I asked him to tell whether my daughter is alive or not,” Yadav said.
According to Sunil Yadav, Sahil’s father told him on the phone was that he should assume that his daughter was dead.
“We thought that they were bluffing. How is it possible that a man going to get married is traceless for eight hours and his family is not aware of his location,” Sunil Yadav said.
Sahil Gehlot allegedly murdered Nikki Yadav at around 9am on February 10 after strangulating her with a chord, got married to another woman roughly 12 hours later, and returned to his vehicle at around 3am the following morning to shift the corpse into the refrigerator of his family-owned roadside eatery in Mitraon village from the trunk, police officials said on Wednesday.
Also Read| Nikki Yadav died of suffocation, no other injury; time not clear: Autopsy report
Police arrested Sahil Gehlot on Tuesday, when the crime came to light after they started investigating the woman’s disappearance.
Investigating officers said that the man committed the crime because his girlfriend, who he had been living with for the past five years, was asking him to get married. But his wedding to another woman was set for the same evening he committed the murder.
Nikki Yadav’s father on Wednesday also alleged that his daughter was assaulted even as he said that she was not in a live-in relationship with Sahil Gehlot.
“They (Sahil’s family) were equally involved in the murder. My daughter was strong. She was assaulted by Gehlot and his family members after which they strangled her. Her body had bruises on her face, neck and legs,” he alleged.
The father, who runs an automobile spare part shop in Gurugram’s Sector-17, alleged that he also called Sahil Gehlot multiple times after her daughter’s disppearance, but later stopped when Sahil told him that he was getting married.
According to him, the crime came to light when a passerby spotted Sahil Gehlot taking a body inside his dhaba. However, police have rebutted the claim.
“A police informer had informed our team that there was something fishy on the part of Gehlot and he may have killed his girlfriend, who was not seen since February 10. We verified the information, took Gehlot into custody and interrogated him during which he confessed to the murder and accompanied us to the dhaba from where the body was recovered from the fridge,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Satish Kumar.
The father of the deceased also claimed that Sahil Gehlot was motivated by Aftab Poonawala, who is under arrested for the horrific murder of his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar, whose body he chopped into pieces before dumping them across Delhi.
Sunil Yadav also alleged that Gehlot was misleading police and giving false information. “My daughter was not in a live-in relationship. She lived in PG with her younger sister. If she was willing to marry someone, she would have confided in us,” he said.
“The future of my other daughter and son are in the dark as the media revealed their identity and suspect gave false statements that Nikki was in a live-in relationship. Who will marry my daughter now? Our reputation is maligned,” he said.
According to Nikki Yadav’s uncle Parveen Yadav, a Kargil war veteran, she was a bright student and was pursuing her masters in English. “She was studying M.A. English from Galgotia University,” he said.
“Nikki scored more than 90% in her Class 12 examination. She wanted to be a doctor but could not clear the entrance exam. Later she decided to be a lecturer after completing her master degree and doing a Ph.D.,” he said.
