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, hid her body, and resumed business as usual, the Delhi police said today, revealing more shockers in the chilling re-run of last year’s Aaftab Poonawalla and Shraddha Walkar case.
Sahil Gehlot, 24, enjoyed himself at his engagement on February 9 and danced for hours with friends, according to the police. The next day, before his wedding, he allegedly strangled Nikki Yadav when she confronted him on his alleged betrayal.
Visuals show Sahil Gehlot performing wedding rituals, looking far from a man who had just committed murder.
Nikki Yadav, 23, was last seen in security footage at her rented home on February 9.
She didn’t know then that Sahil Gehlot was engaged to another woman. They had been living together since 2018, when they met while taking pharmaceutical college entrance exams.
After his engagement, Sahil allegedly took his cousin’s car and drove to Nikki’s home around 1 am. CCTV footage shows Sahil entering the apartment. Around 5 am, they are seen leaving. They went in the same car to the Nizamuddin Railway station in South Delhi, ostensibly 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 to book a trip to any hill town in Himachal Pradesh.
The police suspect Sahil planned to leave Nikki and was trying to mislead her by promising a getaway together.
They didn’t get a bus ticket either, so they left, the police say. They parked the car at Kashmere Gate in North Delhi and argued for about four hours.
“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. Around 9 am on February 10, in the middle of screaming match, Sahil strangled his girlfriend using his charging cable, the police say.
He allegedly drove around 40 km to his family’s dhaba, or roadside restaurant, with Nikki’s body strapped up in the front seat. He left the car at the dhaba with the body in its boot, according to the police. After locking up the dhaba, he went home for his wedding.
Much later, when his family and relatives were sleeping, Sahil allegedly drove to the dhaba around 3.30 am, in another car, to deal with the corpse.
The police say Sahil’s plan was to dump the body in the river or a drain. He allegedly moved the body from the car to the fridge in the dhaba.
Sahil allegedly kept Nikki’s mobile phone, which was retrieved by the police. Sahil erased all data from his and Nikki’s phones. “He knew it was big evidence, so he deleted all chats of their fights,” a police officer said.
The police are also checking security footage from all the locations that Sahil has referred to in his alleged “confession” on 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 similarities 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.
