Delhi fridge murder case: Sahil, Nikki got married 3 years ago, didn’t tell kin, say cops

Sources said the two had not invited their families to the wedding, and that when Sahil’s family found out eventually, they opposed the relationship because the two were from different communities, officers said, adding that they then decided to fix his marriage with someone else.

This was the trigger of an argument between the couple, during which Sahil allegedly strangled Nikki early February 10, and stuffed her body in a fridge owned by his family.

Days after the murder, the Delhi Police Crime Branch has also arrested Sahil’s father Virender; his cousins Ashish and Naveen; and two friends Lokesh and Amar. Naveen, Sahil’s maternal aunt’s son, is posted as a constable with the Delhi Police, officers said, adding that he works at Dwarka police station. Police said the men conspired to dispose of the body and had planned to move it from the fridge after Sahil got married on February 10.

According to senior officers, Sahil’s father allegedly knew of the crime but got his son to marry someone else hours after killing Nikki. The other accused allegedly helped him hide the body.

Talking about the developments, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said, “During interrogation, we found out that Nikki and Sahil got married at an Arya Samaj temple in Greater Noida. We have the certificate dated October 1, 2020. When she found out about the other wedding, she pleaded with him not to go ahead. We suspect the accused then hatched the conspiracy to eliminate the deceased. He took her to Kashmere Gate where he killed her. He then switched off both their phones. His father and the other accused were all in Mitraon preparing for the wedding and started looking for him. They sent a car to bring Sahil back. When they found him, he told them about the murder. They brought him to the dhaba where they hid the body. They went ahead with the wedding functions. We have arrested all five accused after interrogating them and verifying their role.”

The five accused, including Sahil’s father, have been booked for alleged criminal conspiracy, hiding/destroying evidence, lying to the police and harbouring a criminal. Police said the accused, including Sahil, had returned to the family home in a Tata car from the dhaba and they are trying to recover CCTV footage of the same.

An investigating officer said, “While we were interrogating Sahil, we found out that he was lying about the sequence of events as the timeline mentioned by him didn’t match with the CCTV footage recovered. He later confessed that he had told his father, cousins and friends about the incident. His father allegedly asked him to go ahead with the marriage, which he did.”

Sahil’s wife, who returned to her village a day after the wedding, did not have knowledge of the incident, police had said, adding that she is not being questioned at present.