Nikki Yadav murder: Angry, killer’s relatives say will shun him
Sahil Gehlot was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing his girlfriend Nikki Yadav, 22, on February 10, roughly 12 hours before his wedding
New Delhi
A little over a kilometre from his family-owned roadside eatery, where Sahil Gehlot stuffed his partner into a refrigerator allegedly after murdering her, sit two of his relatives – tense, angry and a feeling of humiliation so deep that there was little to no eye contact.
We have decided to boycott him, one of the two men said.
“Nobody from our family or village has met him (Gehlot) or extended any support to him since his crime came to light and he was arrested by the police. A crime like murder of a woman is not acceptable in our society. And that is why we have boycotted him,” said Jaiveer Singh Gandhi, a relative of Gehlot, seated on a cot with Gehlot’s uncle Hawa Singh at Mitraon village on Wednesday.
Gehlot was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing his girlfriend Nikki Yadav, 22, on February 10, roughly 12 hours before his wedding. His two-storeyed house in the village, which was still decorated with wedding lights, was locked and empty; two men were working separately in a godown attached to the house.
According to the two men, all the members of the Gehlot family, including the new daughter-in-law, left for unknown locations soon after his arrest.
A police team with one patrolling van was stationed some 100m from the house to keep a vigil on the activities in the village.
While Gehlot’s uncle was adamantly silent on the matter, Gandhi justified Hawa Singh’s anger as it was he who had set up the newly married couple and made much of the wedding arrangements.
“I have nothing to say on this matter. You better leave my place or go and talk to the family of the person who has committed the crime,” Singh said, as he broke his silence.
The two men in the godown, refusing to identify themselves, said everything was normal on the day of the wedding until they came to know about the arrest. “We attended the engagement as well as the wedding ceremonies. Nobody knew about the murder until police arrested Gehlot,” said one of the men, tying a bundle of cloth.
Unlike Gehlot’s relatives, a woman, in her sixties, living in the neighbourhood blamed the circumstances under which the murder took place but said that the act was wrong and unjustified.
“I am not saying he (Gehlot) did the right thing by killing a woman he was in love with. But you should understand that he was surrounded by problems from all sides. His girlfriend belonged to a different caste and nobody in our society approves marriages outside our caste. There is no male member in the family of the woman he got married to. Had he not married her, her life would have been ruined. On the other hand, his girlfriend was threatening him with a criminal case,” said the woman, refusing to identify herself.