Sahil Gehlot Killed Nikki Yadav, Hid Body In Between His Engagement, Wedding

Sahil Gehlot, 24, enjoyed his engagement on February 9.

New Delhi:

Sometime between his engagement and wedding, Sahil Gehlot killed his girlfriend of four years, Nikki Yadav, hid her body, and resumed business as usual, the Delhi police say as they investigate a murder with horrific similarities to last year’s Aaftab Poonawalla and Shraddha Walkar case.

Sahil Gehlot, 24, enjoyed his engagement on February 9 and danced away with friends. The next morning, he allegedly strangled Nikki Yadav, who had just learnt about his betrayal, before going through with his wedding.

As the police established details of the murder, sources said videos of the wedding showed Sahil Gehlot as any ordinary groom performing rituals, looking far from a man who had just committed a murder.

Nikki Yadav, 23, was last seen in security footage at her rented home in Delhi on February 9.

That was the evening Sahil Gehlot got engaged, unknown to her, according to the police.

After his engagement revelries, Sahil allegedly took his cousin’s car and drove to Nikki’s home around 1 am. Around 5 am, they both left for the Nizamuddin Railway station in south Delhi, apparently to catch a train to Goa.

Nikki Yadav wanted to go to Goa with Sahil but he said he couldn’t get a ticket, the police said. Then they allegedly decided to go to the bus station for a trip to Himachal Pradesh.

The police suspect Sahil planned to leave Nikki and was trying to mislead her by promising a trip together.

They didn’t get a bus ticket either, so they left, the police say.

“Sahil said he was in two minds. This is all his version 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 forensic examination to make this a strong case,” said a police officer.

It was Sahil’s wedding day, and his family kept calling. The couple allegedly started fighting in the car and around 9 am on February 10, Sahil strangled his girlfriend using his data cable, the police say.

He allegedly took her body, secured in the front seat with the seat belt, to his family’s dhaba, or roadside restaurant. There he hid the body in the boot of the car and left it, according to the police. After shutting the dhaba, he went home for his wedding.

Afterwards, when his family and relatives were sleeping, he took another car and drove to the dhaba around 3.30 am to deal with the corpse.

The police say his plan was to dump the body in the river or a drain.

Sahil allegedly moved the body from the car to the fridge in the dhaba. Nikki’s bag was kept near the fridge. Sahil allegedly took Nikki’s mobile phone, which was retrieved by the police. The phone data was allegedly deleted, not just from her phone but also Sahil’s own device.

The police are trying to retrieve WhatsApp chats between the two and photos taken on the phone.

They are also checking security footage from all the locations that Sahil has referred to in his alleged “confession” on the day of the killing.

The murder was discovered four days later, on Tuesday (February 14) after a neighbour reported Nikki Yadav missing and the police tracked down her partner.

The crime has parallels with the killing of Shraddha Walkar last year by her boyfriend Aaftab Poonawalla, who chopped up the body into several pieces and disposed of them bit by bit, keeping the parts in his fridge for weeks.