A Delhi court on Friday sent Army Major Nikhil Handa to 14 days in judicial custody for allegedly killing another officer’s wife, PTI reported. Earlier on Friday, the Delhi Police recovered a knife suspected to have been used by Handa to kill Shailaja Dwivedi in the national capital from a wooded area along the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, PTI reported. They also recovered traces of burnt clothes from the spot.
According to police, Handa had taken the expressway to Meerut Cantonment after allegedly killing Dwivedi in Delhi. Forensic experts are yet to confirm if the recovered knife was used in the murder, reported Hindustan Times.
Police said they had been looking for a second knife after forensic experts confirmed that the pocket knife recovered from Handa’s car was not used in the crime.
A senior police officer investigating the case told PTI that CCTV footage showed Handa taking a detour to a village on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway allegedly to dispose the knife and destroy evidence. Police said samples of the burnt clothes found at the spot would also be sent to forensic lab to find out if it belonged to Handa or Dwivedi.
Police claimed that after killing Dwivedi, Handa left for Meerut Cantonment so that the case could be tried by the Army board. Before reaching Meerut, he disposed the knife and changed his clothes, The Indian Express reported quoting police.
On June 23, Handa and Dwivedi, who knew each other since 2015, reportedly got into an argument, after which Handa attacked her with a knife. He allegedly slit her throat and ran over her body with his car to make it look like an accident. The woman was found dead in New Delhi’s Brar Square area, close to the Delhi Cantonment metro station. Handa was arrested on June 24.
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