Nikki Yadav murder: Court pulls up police for not producing case diary

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday pulled up the police for not producing the case diary of the Nikki Yadav murder and has asked the investigation officer (IO) to come with it on Tuesday.

In the murder case, main accused Sahil Gehlot had allegedly strangled 23-year-old Yadav near Kashmiri Gate on February 10 and married another woman on the same day. Four days later, Yadav’s body was found in a fridge at a dhaba, owned by Gehlot, in Mitraon village on the outskirts of Delhi.

Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Paras Dalal of Dwarka court extended the judicial custody of all the six accused including Gehlot by one day, that is Tuesday.

The Metropolitan Magistrate directed the IO to produce the case diary and pagination of the same on Tuesday.

The court noted that the IO, due to his absence, deputed a Sub Inspector to attend the court hearing, who did not bring the case diary.

After noting the submission of advocate Anirudh Yadav, counsel for one of the accused persons Lokesh Yadav, the court asked the police that how the offences related to murder and conspiracy are made out against him.

On March 6, the court had extended the judicial custody of Gehlot five others by 14 days, which expired on Monday.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samiksha Gupta had extended their judicial custody.

The magistrate had also allowed family of co-accused Ashish and Lokesh to meet them in the courtroom.

For Lokesh, advocate Yadav had moved an application seeking the marking of the case diary and showed displeasure over manipulation in it.

Earlier, four fresh charges were invoked by police under different Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Gehlot’s counsel D.S. Kumar had said that while the FIR was initially registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC, police have now invoked Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform), and 212 (harbouring offender).

Gehlot’s father Virender Singh; cousins Naveen (a constable in Delhi Police) and Ashish; and friends Lokesh and Amar are accused of hatching a conspiracy to get rid of Yadav, so he could go ahead with his wedding with another woman.

According to a senior police official, Gehlot was interrogated at length during police custody and disclosed that Yadav was trying to stop him from marrying someone else as they had already solemnised their marriage in 2020.

“She was pleading with him not to go ahead with the marriage fixed by his family with another girl on February 10. However, Gehlot along with his father, two cousins, and two friends hatched the conspiracy and planned to remove the deceased from their way,” the official had said.

“He executed the plan and murdered her and informed other co-accused persons about it on the same day and then all of them went ahead with the marriage ceremony.”