Making of a murder: Tracing Sahil Gehlot’s steps on fateful day

Officers recreating the sequence of events in the murder said that Gehlot allegedly strangled Yadav in his cousin’s Hyundai Verna, which was parked in the parking lot of the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium.

After Sahil Gehlot (24) allegedly murdered his girlfriend Nikki Yadav (22) in his cousin’s car on February 10, he drove 40km to his outdoor eatery in Mitraon village near Najafgarh on the Outer Ring Road because he knew he would find fewer police picket fences on that road, police officers probing the case said on Thursday.

The roadside eatery in Mitraon village, where the body of Nikki Yadav, 22, was found in a refrigerator. (HT Photo)

Officers recreating the sequence of events in the murder said that Gehlot allegedly strangled Yadav in his cousin’s Hyundai Verna, which was parked in the parking lot of the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium. He then put the seat belt around her body on the passenger seat of the vehicle, before driving to his eatery.

Investigators are currently trying to map the route that Gehlot took through CCTV footage and corroborate his version on the crime. Police have already gathered five different camera footages that show Gehlot driving, purportedly with Yadav’s body. However, they are yet to find any footage showing Yadav’s alleged strangulation, added the officers.

According to the police, after murdering Yadav, Gehlot switched off her cellphone and kept it on his person while getting married to another woman at Jhajjar in Haryana, nearly 12 hours later.

When he finally went back to the eatery to shift Yadav’s body into the refrigerator, he switched her phone on and deleted incriminating data, including chats, photographs and videos exchanged between them. He also deleted similar data from his cellphone, police said.

Police said that on Wednesday, after they secured Gehlot’s five-day custody from a Delhi court, an investigation team from the crime branch’s western range (WR)-1 took the suspect to his and Yadav’s rented flat in Uttam Nagar, from where the couple had left at around 5 am on February 10.

“We took Gehlot to the flat and asked him to explain when he arrived there, what happened between him and Yadav at the flat, and when they left the building. Earlier, Yadav had claimed that he left the flat around 1.30 am. But when we checked the CCTV cameras installed at the building and in the lane outside, it showed that the couple left the building around 5 am,” the investigator said.

Police said Yadav’s sister was present at the flat when Gehlot reached there at around 1am. Yadav had called him to explain why he had gotten engaged to another woman, police said. They said the sister was the last person to see Yadav alive — After Yadav went missing, the sister did not think anything was amiss because couple had told her that they were leaving for Goa by train, said an investigator, who asked not to be identified.

On Thursday morning, Gehlot led the crime branch team to Nigam Bodh Ghat and identified the exact spot where he had parked the car. Police personnel looked for CCTV cameras but did not find any that spot, but did find footage of the car entering and exiting the premises of the crematorium.

“We have seized the DVR of the cameras and will use the footage as key evidence to validate that the couple was present in the parking lot. It will also corroborate Gehlot’s version. When we asked him why he chose a crowded place for murdering Yadav, Gehlot said murdering her was not in his mind when he took the car to the parking lot. He claims that as Yadav was arguing with him, he did not want it to happen on the road and get noticed by police or passersby,” another police officer, privy to the developments in the case, said.

From Nigambodh Ghat, Gehlot took the police team along the route that he drove with Yadav’s body. As per his disclosures, he took a U-turn from under the flyover near the Hanuman Temple at ISBT and drove on the Outer Ring Road, going to Mitraon village via Burari, Bhalswa, Rohini, Pitampura, Paschim Vihar, Uttam Nagar, and Najafgarh.

“Since the route is very long, it will take time to locate CCTV cameras, collect video clips of that morning and scan for footage of the car. Only the footage can help us corroborate his version regarding the routes he took. To establish the presence of Gehlot and Yadav in the car during that period, we also have to corroborate it with the location of their cellphones,” said the third officer.

Investigators said that Gehlot was also taken to the eatery to recreate the sequence of him parking the car, shifting Yadav’s body in its trunk from the front seat and finally stuffing the body in the refrigerator. They said they are also looking for CCTV cameras around the eatery.