Months after the Shraddha Walkar murder case in Delhi that shook the conscience of the entire nation, two other grisly murders of women – one in the national capital and another in Maharashtra – have come to the fore. All three women had one thing in common – they were killed by their partners.
As shocking details continue to emerge from the latest murder cases, News18 brings a recap of the three gruesome killings that have sent shockwaves across the country:
Nikki Yadav Murder Case
In a shocking incident, a 24-year-old man Sahil Gehlot strangled his 23-year-old girlfriend Nikki Yadav to death, stuffed her body inside a fridge, and went off to marry another woman the same day. The accused, a resident of southwest Delhi’s Mitraon village, has been arrested.
The incident came to light on February 14 when police retrieved the body of the victim four days after the accused allegedly committed the crime. Nikki’s body was recovered on Tuesday morning from the refrigerator at the accused’s eatery, which was locked since the day of the crime.
According to police, the accused had hidden from Nikki the fact that he is going to marry another woman. When Nikki came to know about it, she had an argument with Sahil which led to her murder. They had been in a relationship for the past few years and Nikki wanted to marry Sahil.
The alleged murder took place on the intervening night of February 9 and 10 when the victim confronted the accused about his marriage, a senior police officer said.
Megha Thorvi Murder Case
On Monday, police found a highly-decomposed body of a woman, identified as Megha Thorvi, in a flat in Nalasopara town in Palghar district of Maharashtra. Later, police arrested Hardik Shah with the help of Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials from Nagda in Madhya Pradesh when he was fleeing to Haridwar.
It was further revealed that a day after he allegedly killed his wife and hid the body in a bed, the 27-year-old Hardik burnt incense sticks to hide the odour as he was trying to sell household items and had invited buyers.
Hardik had sent a message to his wife’s sister about the killing and was thinking of ending his own life, police was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
He allegedly told the cops that he killed his wife around February 11 after a fight over money. He and Megha had met through a dating app three years ago, and after living together for sometime they got married in August last year, the police official said.
Hardik, who was unemployed, had worked as a call-data-record analyst during lockdown, while Megha was working as a nurse but she too had quit the job.
On Saturday, there was an argument during which Hardik allegedly strangled Megha with a towel, and then stuffed the body in a bed.
Next day, in need of money to flee, he tried to sell some household items and called a few people to inspect the goods, the police official said.
Shraddha Walkar murder case
On May 18, 2022, Aaftab Poonawala allegedly killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and disposed of her body after cutting it into several pieces. In a 6,629-page chargesheet, Poonawala described how he allegedly killed the victim and what all he did to dispose of her body.
The Delhi Police claimed in its charge sheet that the accused has disclosed that he was friends with several women, including one in Dubai, and Walkar doubted his fidelity which led to arguments between them.
Poonawala had attended a two-week “butchering course" while he was pursuing his diploma in hotel management in Mumbai, according to it.
Walkar also told one of the witnesses examined by police that she used to take frequent leave from work on the pretext of illness because Poonawala used to beat her, the charge sheet said.
It said Poonwala after Walkar’s death became friends with a woman. “He had shifted Walkar’s dismembered body from a refrigerator (after cleaning it) to the kitchen cabinet when she visited the accused’s residence," the charge sheet said.
“Whenever…(Poonawala’s friend) used to visit my flat I used to clean the refrigerator and used to put the body parts of Walkar in the lower cabinet of the kitchen. After her departure, I used to keep the remaining body parts that is the head, torso and both forearms in the refrigerator," the charge sheet said quoting Poonawala.
“During this initial inquiry, he was evasive in his reply and despite the fact that Walkar was with him for the last so many years, he was not able to tell as to where she had gone after June 13 and further, he did not inform either family members of Walkar or any common friend. Hence, a reasonable suspicion arose," the charge sheet said.
(with inputs from PTI)
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