3 min readJhajjar, New DelhiFeb 16, 2023 08:40 AM IST
First published on: Feb 16, 2023 at 06:13 AM IST
For over two days after Nikki Yadav (24) went missing, her live-in partner Sahil Gehlot (24) continued to mislead her family, telling them over phone calls that she had gone to either Dehradun or Rishikesh with friends and that he was busy in his wedding preparations, her father told The Indian Express on Wednesday. Sahil is accused of strangling Nikki early on February 10 and stuffing her body in a fridge at a dhaba owned by his family.
The family grew suspicious and, according to Nikki’s father, Sahil’s father was the one who eventually told them that their daughter is dead, and that his son had surrendered before the police. While senior police officers said a secret informer had told them about Nikki going missing, sources said it was Sahil’s father who reached out to the police.
Sitting on a charpoy in the verandah of his house at Jhajjar’s Kheri Khummar village on Wednesday evening, Nikki’s father Sunil Dutt, said that his wife had spoken to their daughter on Thursday evening.
“After my daughter’s phone was found switched off on Friday and Saturday, we got worried. It was unusual because she always calls back immediately or leaves a message. On Saturday, we called our younger daughter but she was also clueless. We started calling all her friends. My daughter then got Sahil’s number and told us he knows about her,” said Dutt.
“He told me that Nikki had gone on a trip with her friends and left her mobile phone with him as it did not have balance/recharge. He kept changing the locations and his statements – on one call he said she is in Dehradun and on another he mentioned Rishikesh. He said he could not join them for the trip as he was getting married,” said Dutt.
“On Sunday, he stopped answering our calls. The next morning, he called saying that he had to go somewhere during the night and that my daughter would return on Monday. Then, I got suspicious and asked my younger daughter to arrange Sahil’s parents’ contact,” he said. “His father picked up the call but said they are busy with the wedding. In the evening, his father told me that something wrong had happened. He said that they have handed him (Sahil) over to the police after he confessed to killing her. I was confused but the police called me after some time,” said Dutt.
Nikki’s family said they only knew of Sahil as someone in her college friends circle.
Sahil Gehlot and Nikki Yadav. (File) 
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