Police recover ‘bigger’ knife they suspect was used to murder Army wife Shailza Dwivedi

Delhi Police said they recovered what they suspect was the knife that Army major Nikhil Rai Handa used to stab Shailza Dwivedi, wife of a fellow officer, last week. The police had earlier seized a pocket knife from Handa’s possession, which they initially suspected was used in the crime.

The Delhi Police on Thursday said they had recovered what they suspect was the knife that Army major Nikhil Rai Handa used to stab Shailza Dwivedi, wife of a fellow officer, last week. The police had earlier seized a pocket knife from Handa’s possession, which they initially suspected was used in the crime.

Police said the knife was recovered on Thursday from a wooded area along the Delhi-Meerut Expressway that Army major Nikhil Rai Handa had taken on his way to Meerut Cantonment from Delhi in his car after allegedly killing Shailza. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The police said the “bigger knife” was recovered on Thursday from a wooded area along the Delhi-Meerut Expressway that Handa had taken on his way to Meerut Cantonment from Delhi in his car after allegedly killing Shailza. Forensic experts are yet to confirm that the recovered knife was used in the murder.

A senior police officer associated with the case said they had been looking for another knife because forensic experts confirmed that the pocket knife recovered from Handa’s car was not used in the crime. The forensic experts gave their opinion based on Shailza’s stab wound.

Handa had allegedly taken a detour to a village near the Delhi- Meerut Expressway to dispose of the knife, destroy other evidences and mislead the police, investigators said. Some burnt clothes were also found from the spot where the knife was recovered, the police said.

“Handa misled us by claiming that he threw the bigger knife in Delhi Cantonment area. We carried out searches on Tuesday and Wednesday within a radius of 3km from the spot but could not recover it,” said the officer.

A police official said the knife was recovered from a spot located a 45-minute drive from the Army guest house in Meerut where Handa had spent Saturday night after allegedly killing Shailza.