The police tracked down Sahil after a neighbour reported Nikki missing.
Nikki Yadav, the 23-year-old Delhi woman who was strangled to death by her boyfriend with a charging cable and stuffed in a fridge, was married to the accused since 2020, police sources said today in a major development in the case. A picture from their wedding ceremony has also surfaced. Earlier, it was reported that the man, 24-year-old Sahil Gehlot, had murdered her on the day of his wedding to another woman after a three-hour fight over the issue. Sahil had hidden his plans to marry another woman from Nikki Yadav.
Sources said Sahil, a pharma graduate, and Nikki, got married in October 2020 at the Arya Samaj temple in Uttar Pradesh's Noida. Sahil's family was reportedly unhappy with the marriage and wanted her gone.
The priest of the temple also confirmed, after checking records, that the couple indeed got married there. "They looked happy," he said, adding that two other people accompanied them.
Delhi Police's Crime Branch yesterday arrested Sahil's father, Virendra Singh, brothers Anish and Naveen, and friends Lokesh and Amar after they found out that Sahil's family and friends were involved in the murder.
Sahil's family fixed his marriage with another woman in December 2022, and Nikki was kept in the dark.
Police have also recovered the wedding certificates of Sahil and Nikki during the accused's police remand.
Police sources said Sahil's cousin brother and a friend helped him hide Nikki's body in a fridge at his family-owned dhaba (restaurant), just 700 meters from his parents' home.
Some reports said Nikki had threatened to file a case if he married someone else. Other reports claimed she had booked tickets to Goa and was pressing him to go with her.
According to the police, Sahil deleted his chats from the phones of his cousin and friend, who helped him hide the body.
The murder, which surfaced on what is widely celebrated as Valentine's Day, has chilling similarities to the murder 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.
The police tracked down Sahil after a neighbour reported Nikki missing. Her family lives in Jhajjar in Haryana.
Police sources claim Sahil "confessed" during his questioning and revealed where he had hidden Nikki's body.
Sahil's new bride has reportedly gone back to her parents' home.
Nikki's uncle Praveen Yadav has demanded that the case be heard in a fast track court, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hang the killer.
Her father, Sunil Yadav, has also demanded the death penalty for Sahil.