Shailja Dwivedi murder: Major Nikhil Handa to be taken to Meerut to recreate sequence of events

NEW DELHI: Army Major Nikhil Handa, who is accused of brutally killing a fellow officer's wife, will be taken to Meerut as part of the investigation to ascertain the places he had visited after the committing the crime. 

Delhi Police, which is probing the murder, is yet to recover the murder weapon – a Swiss knife - with which Handa slit the throat of 35-year-old Shailza Dwivedi.

The victim was the wife of another Army Major, who was also a good friend of the accused.

According to Delhi Police, Handa will be taken to Meerut to recreate the sequence of events and to ascertain where he could have thrown the knife he used to slit the woman's throat.

On Tuesday, the accused was taken to some places in southwest Delhi to identify the places where he could have thrown the knife, police said.

Police also sought to know from Handa's close family members if they had any inkling of his plan to kill the woman.

Major Nikhil Handa was obsessed with Shailja Dwivedi and wanted to marry her. However, when she refused to continue her extra-marital affairs with Handa, the latter killed her in cold-blood and made it look like an accident.

The 40-year-old accused was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut on Sunday for killing the woman. Based on his call records, the investigating officers said that Handa made over 3,300 calls to Shailja sine January this year.

The woman's body was found with her throat slit near the Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area on Saturday.

Initially, the police were informed that a woman had died in an accident. Later, when they inspected the body, it was found that her throat was slit.

Before the crime, the victim was dropped at the Army Base Hospital in her husband's official vehicle by a driver on Saturday.

Later, when the driver came back to pick her up, he could not find her and was told that she did not attend her scheduled physiotherapy session. 

(With PTI inputs)