Minutes after allegedly killing his fellow officer’s wife, Major Nikhil Rai Handa called and ‘confessed’ about the crime to one of his ‘girlfriends’ in Delhi, police said.
A police officer who interrogated Handa and went through the content on his mobile phones said the arrested officer had at least three girlfriends in the city.
The woman he allegedly called and informed about the murder is much older to him, police said. “He is most attached to this woman. But when he told her about killing Shailza Dwivedi, she thought he was bluffing and disconnected the phone call. She did not feel the need to alert the police,” said the officer.
The woman was questioned by the police but was ignorant about Handa’s crime, which investigators said was “preplanned”. Investigators said they had made conscious efforts to ensure her relationship remains a secret.
“The woman is a divorcee and has grown-up children. We tried to ensure her relatives or neighbours did not get a whiff about her relations with Handa,” said the officer who is not authorised to speak to the media.
Handa had befriended some of these women in 2015 by allegedly creating a fake Facebook profile to send friend requests to unknown women.
“Handa had come across Shailza’s Facebook profile while surfing from the fake account but did not send a friend request when he realised she too was the wife of an Indian Army Major. Instead, he met her directly during a get-together,” said the officer.
Handa told his interrogators that Shailza was ‘obsessed’ with him but her family as well as the police maintained that it was the other way round.
Police said she was killed for objecting to his marriage proposal and unwanted advances.
“Each of these women he has had an affair with or was chasing had a faint idea of his multiple affairs but he was able to convince them to continue their relationships with him,” said the interrogator.
To pursue Shailza, Handa arrived in Delhi on June 4 on the pretext of getting himself treated for migraine. Instead, he was using the opportunity to allegedly confront and interact with Shailza at the army’s base hospital in Delhi cantonment where she was visiting for physiotherapy sessions.
It was the visit to the hospital that gave him away. “When Shailza’s husband Amit Dwivedi could not contact his wife on Saturday, he visited the hospital and requested to see CCTV footage. In the footage, Amit spotted Handa. He was alerted as Handa was posted in Dimapur in Nagaland and wasn’t supposed to be in Delhi,” said the investigator.
Since Amit was aware of the alleged unwanted attention his wife was receiving from Handa, he approached the police who informed him of his wife’s murder.
He immediately pointed the finger of suspicion at Handa.
