Nikki Yadav murder: Sahil Gehlot drove 40km with body, not halted

New Delhi Sahil Gehlot drove from Kashmere Gate to Najafgarh, a distance of over 40 kilometres, with the body of his girlfriend Nikki Yadav – who he allegedly murdered -- strapped in on the front seat of his car in broad daylight, raising a plethora of questions over the absence of sufficient check posts and patrolling on major roads of the national capital

New Delhi

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Sahil Gehlot drove from Kashmere Gate to Najafgarh, a distance of over 40 kilometres, with the body of his girlfriend Nikki Yadav – who he allegedly murdered -- strapped in on the front seat of his car in broad daylight, raising a plethora of questions over the absence of sufficient check posts and patrolling on major roads of the national capital.

The uninterrupted drive, which took place during the morning of February 10, majorly draws attention to the lack of police vigilance. Similar concerns abounded following the Sultanpuri case, in which a 20-year-old woman was hit and dragged under a car for nearly 15km in the early hours of January 1, but that incident took place at night when streets are mostly deserted.

According to a senior Delhi Police officer, who refused to be identified, Gehlot took the outer ring road — there are at least three police districts on the stretch — to reach Mitraon village in Najafgarh, where he allegedly left Yadav in the car parked at his family-owned roadside eatery to take part in his own wedding later in the evening of February 10.

Another Delhi Police officer said that they were also probing the number of check posts along the route he took, the number of police personnel on duty and whether at all anyone found the need to flag Gehlot.

“It may not be practically possible to check all vehicles on a given day, but surely some police team should have halted the car, given the wide network of police check posts across the national capital,” said a police officer, on condition of anonymity.

“It can be a lapse by a single district if he drove through only one region. But since he went undetected through three-four districts, it seems to be a systemic failure,” the officer said.

Police, however, also suggested that Gehlot going undetected was not fully surprising as it is practically impossible for the check post staff to decide whether a woman seated with her eyes closed in the front seat was dead or simply sleeping.

“If we started stopping every car with a person seemingly sleeping in the front seat, there would be traffic jams across the city,” the officer said.

Recently on February 6, Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora issued detailed instructions for police officers on night patrol across the Capital. According to the order, the night patrol, which will begin at 11pm and end at 5am the next day, will involve night pickets – border, semi-permanent and permanent – mobile patrols on police motor cycles and vans, and foot patrols.

Vikram Singh, former chief of Uttar Pradesh Police, said it may be practically impossible to stop all vehicles for checking, but ample presence of check posts on all important roads of the city would have served as a deterrent. “Even the Sultanpuri incident was able to take place uninterrupted because of the absence of sufficient check posts,” said Singh.

The city also has a wide network of traffic police personnel on the roads, but they too couldn’t have done much in such situations, said Maxwell Pereira, former Delhi Traffic Police chief. “Stopping vehicles without any visible violation would be met with the public screaming about harassment,” said Pereira.

When contacted, the Delhi Police spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.