Army Major Nikhil Handa, arrested for allegedly killing a fellow officer's wife in Delhi, had several fake Facebook accounts and profiles on dating sites that he used to contact women. It was one of these women friends that he called first after the murder, the police said on Wednesday.
Major Handa, 40, was arrested on Sunday, a day after he allegedly slit the throat of Shailza Dwivedi, the wife of Major Amit Dwivedi, and ran her over to make it look like an accident. He allegedly wanted to marry the 35-year-old former beauty queen, but she had refused.
The two met in 2015 in Nagaland - when Shailza's husband was posted there. Over 3,500 calls and messages were exchanged between them in six months, the police say, and they were mostly from Major Handa.
In the time he knew Shailza, Major Handa also trawled dating sites.
He allegedly grew close to a woman he met through the site QuackQuack.in about two years ago. She was the first person he called after allegedly committing the crime.
The woman, who lives in Delhi's Patel Nagar, had come out of a bad marriage and had become a close confidante of the officer.
Shailza Dwivedi, wife of Major Amit Dwivedi, was found run over by a car in the Delhi Cantonment area on Saturday.
The woman, say the police, knew about Major Handa and Shailza Dwivedi but had not met her.
According to senior police officer Vijay Kumar, the woman revealed during her questioning that Major Handa vented and fumed over the phone on Saturday. She reportedly also told the police that she "did not believe" he had killed anyone.
"He possibly wanted an outlet for his anger," said Vijay Kumar, asked about the phone call.
He allegedly also called his younger brother and told him that it was "an accident". The brother was with Major Handa for a while until he was dropped off at the Akshadham temple in east Delhi.
"Nikhil Handa is giving us misleading information day after day. We have done 90 per cent of the work and in coming days, the truth will come out," said Mr Kumar.
Over 3,500 calls and messages were exchanged between Major Handa and Shailza in six months, police say.
One of the "misleading" facts was about whether he changed out of bloodstained clothes. "It is not necessary that he had changed his clothes, because there was no blood on his clothes," said the police officer.
Major Handa had debated escaping to Agra Cantt, but allegedly picked Meerut, a city he is more familiar with. Handa was taken to the spot of the crime as well as Meerut near Delhi on Wednesday, where he was arrested. He is currently on a four-day police remand.
Shailza Dwivedi's body was found near Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area, shortly after she was dropped off in her husband's car by a driver.
Major Handa, who the police say was "obsessed" with Shailza, had arranged to meet her there.
When the driver came back to pick her up, he could not find her and learnt that she had also missed her physiotherapy appointment.
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