Army major arrested in murder case sent to 14-days judicial custody

Major Nikhil Handa was arrested on June 24 from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged involvement in the killing of another Major's wife in west Delhi.

ANI Photo

New Delhi: An Army major, arrested for allegedly killing another officer's wife, was on Friday sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court after the police did not seek his further remand.

Metropolitan Magistrate Manisha Tripathy sent Major Nikhil Handa, who was produced before the court on expiry of his four-day police custody, to Tihar Jail here, while allowing the application moved by the crime branch of Delhi Police seeking the same.

"Accused is remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. To be produced on July 13, 2018," the magistrate said.

Handa was arrested on June 24 from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged involvement in the killing of another Major's wife in west Delhi on Saturday.

The court also held as 'infructuous' the applications moved by the counsel for the accused -- one for medical examination of Handa every day during police custody and another application seeking lawyers' assistance at the stage of interrogation. 

"Since the accused has been sent to judicial custody remand, both the applications have become infructuous and are disposed of," the court said.

During the hearing, the investigating officer told the court that several recoveries were made during the four-day custody and he was no more required for interrogation.

The counsel for Handa, advocate Sanjeev Sahai, moved an application to have a 10 minute meeting with the accused, which was allowed by the court.

The Delhi Police told the court that it yesterday recovered the knife, allegedly used by Handa to slit the throat of a fellow Army officer's wife, from a spot near the Meerut-Muzaffarnagar highway. Traces of burnt clothes were also recovered from the spot, it said.

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

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

The accused had allegedly run a car over her face and the body in order to make the incident appear as an accident, the police has claimed.