However, the clutches of law finally caught up with the accused who was apprehended within 24 hours of the crime. The accused, Major Nikhil Rai Handa was arrested by the Delhi Police from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh – about 100 km from Delhi. The police also recovered his Honda City car in which the gruesome crime was committed.
During interrogation Handa confessed that he had an altercation in his car with Shailja, who was the wife of his colleague Major Amit Dwivedi, after which he slashed her throat with a "Swiss Knife" before pushing her out on the road and mowing her down with the car to conceal the crime.
During a media briefing, Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Kumar said, "To make it look like an accident, Handa then ran over his car on Shailja. Handa had an obsession with Shailja and was pressurising her to marry him."
During interrogation Handa revealed that he knew Shailja since 2015 and that they were having an affair. Shailja had married Amit Dwivedi in 2009 and the couple has a six-year-old son. Major Handa and Major Dwivedi had earlier been posted together in Dimapur, Nagaland, where Handa developed a liking for Shailja.
Shailja, who had come to Delhi two months ago, had been residing at the Army quarters in Naraina near the Cantonment with her husband. She had lately been seeking physiotherapy treatment at the Base Hospital in the Cantonment area. Handa who came to Delhi on June 2, also started visiting the hospital on the pretext of getting treated for migraine to maintain proximity with the victim.
On June 23, the day of the murder, the accused had called up the victim early in the morning and asked her to meet him.
On Saturday morning, at around 10 am, the victim left her home for the Base Hospital in an Army vehicle. Although the driver dropped her off outside the hospital, CCTV camera footage revealed that the victim left with Handa in his car. When the driver returned to pick Shailja up, he was told that she hadn't come to attend her scheduled physiotherapy session. Her body was later found at around 1.30 pm by a passerby near Brar Square.
Investigators zeroed in on Handa as more than 3,000 calls had been exchanged between them in the past one year, the most being made by the Major.
The official said, "Victim's husband had once caught the two on a video call. He informed us that he didn't want Handa to ever be seen around his wife or family."
During the altercation in the car, when Handa pressurised her to marry him Shailja refused to do so. In a fit of rage Handa suddenly slashed her throat, as no evidence of struggle was found.
After committing the crime, Handa went back to his residence at Saket in New Delhi and later visited the Base Hospital to update himself with the developments. He moved to multiple locations in Delhi-NCR before fleeing to Meerut, keeping his phone switched off the entire time.
However, his location was finally traced when he switched on his phone for 58 seconds to make a WhatsApp call, according to the police.
Shailja Dwivedi – a vivacious and aspiring woman whose life met with a tragic end
Shialja Dwivedi, who hailed from Amritsar, was a "Double Masters with first division". In 2017, she had finished finalist of the Mrs India Earth pageant. Holding multiple degrees including MTech in Urban Planning, MA in Geography and Bachelors in Travel and Tourism Management, Shailja had served as a lecturer at Guru Nanak Dev University for five years. She had also been associated with an NGO called "Catch and Care".
During an interview sometime back, the 35-year-old had revealed that she had married the love of her life. According to her, a family was complete "when you have a loving spouse, a naughty child and a bond between them which has threads of love, respect, and feelings for each other".
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