Nikki Yadav died due to strangulation as per preliminary report: Police

The cause of the death of 23-year-old Nikki Yadav was strangulation and no other injury marks were found on her body as per preliminary opinion of doctors, the police said on Wednesday.

Yadav was allegedly strangled to death by her 24-year-old boyfriend Sahil Gehlot who stuffed her body inside a refrigerator of his dhaba (eatery) in southwest Delhi and went off to marry another woman the same day, according to the police.

The incident came to light on Valentine's Day on February 14 and it was on the instance of the accused that Yadav's body was recovered on Tuesday morning from the refrigerator at the eatery, four days after the murder.

The postmortem of Yadav's body went on for over two hours on Wednesday at Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital in New Delhi, and according to the preliminary opinion of doctors, the cause of death was strangulation, police said.

Other than some strangulation marks caused because of a data cable used to kill Yadav, no other injuries were found on her body, they said, quoting the team of doctors who conducted the postmortem.

"Since the body was kept inside the fridge for over four days, it was decomposing at a very slow pace. Right now, it is difficult to ascertain the exact time of her death. However, this is just the preliminary opinion, the final postmortem report is awaited, which will take some time,” a source said.

The police said the body was handed over to the victim's family members after the postmortem.

The body was taken to the woman's native village in Jhajjar district of Haryana to perform the final rites, they added.

The police said accused Gehlot had hidden from his girlfriend the fact that his marriage was fixed with another woman. When Yadav came to know about the wedding, she had a heated argument with Gehlot and he killed her, police said.

"It has been claimed that she was threatening to implicate the man in a case if he married another woman," a source said.

The duo had been in a relationship for the past few years and Yadav wanted to marry Gehlot, the police said.