Delhi: Man strangles girlfriend, goes off to marry another woman same day

New Delhi: A 24-year-old man strangled his girlfriend, stuffed her body inside a refrigerator of his dhaba (eatery) in southwest Delhi, and went off to marry another woman the same day, police said on Wednesday.

Accused Sahil Gehlot, resident of Mitraon village in southwest Delhi, has been arrested, they said.

The incident came to light on Valentine's Day and it was on the instance of the accused that the 23-year-old woman's body was recovered on Tuesday morning from the refrigerator, officials said.

Police said the accused had hidden the fact from his girlfriend Nikki Yadav that his marriage was fixed with another woman. When Nikki came to know about his wedding, she had a heated argument with the accused which led to her murder, they said.

"It has been claimed that she was threatening to implicate the man in a case if he married another woman," a source said.

The couple was in relationship for the past few years and Nikki wanted to marry the accused, police said. On the intervening night of February 9 and 10, when the victim confronted the accused about his marriage, he killed her using the data cable of his mobile phone in his car and then kept her body in a refrigerator at his dhaba, a senior police officer said.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that on February 10, a secret input was received that a person named Sahil Gehlot had killed his girlfriend and married another girl on the day of murder.

On checking, no case or compliant about missing of any such woman was found to be reported, the officer said.

As the mobile phone of the accused was found to be switched off, a police team reached Mitraon village but he was not present in his house after which an intensive search was made in the village and nearby area, the special commissioner of police said, adding the accused was later arrested from Kair village in Delhi.

"During interrogation, the accused initially tried to mislead police, but later he disclosed that he had killed his girlfriend on the intervening night of February 9 and 10 and kept her body in a fridge at his dhaba," the officer said.

Revealing about his association with Nikki, the officer said that the accused told investigators that he was preparing for SSC exams at a coaching centre in Uttam Nagar in January, 2018. At that time, the victim, resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, was also preparing for medical entrance examination from an institute in Uttam Nagar.

"Both of them used to travel to their respective institutes daily in the same bus and became friends and later on fell in love," he said.

In February, 2018, the accused took admission in DPharma at a college in Greater Noida and his girlfriend also took admission in the same college in BA (English Hons.). Thereafter, the couple started living together at Greater Noida in a rented house and became very close to each other. They also travelled to several places such as Manali, Rishikesh, Haridwar and Dehradun, he said.

"During Covid-induced lockdown, they returned to their homes and after 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 with the victim. His family was pressuring him to get married with some other woman and finally in December 2022, his engagement and marriage were fixed with another woman for February 9 and 10, 2023 respectively," the senior officer said.

A case under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed, or giving false information to screen offender) has been registered at Baba Haridas Nagar police station and the investigation was conducted by the Crime Branch, police said.

The statements of the accused are being verified during investigation, they said.