Photo used for illustrative purpose.

This act is as gruesome and morbid as its gets. History, they say, repeats itself. So does cold-blooded murder. Last year, 25-year-old Shraddha Walker was murdered by her alleged boyfriend Aaftab Poonawala at their rented flat in Delhi's Mehrauli. Then he did a gory act: he chopped her body into 35 pieces and later stored it in a 300-litre fridge.

In a similar fashion, a Delhi man killed his girlfriend after an argument over his impending marriage to another woman, stuffed her body in a refrigerator at his dhaba (roadside food joint), and went on with his wedding. All this happened on the same day.

The woman was a resident of Jhajjar, in the neighbouring state of Haryana. The eatery was owned by him on the outskirts of a village called Mitraon.

The accused, Sahil Gehlot, was arrested after the body of the woman was found inside the fridge.

The murder was committed near the Kashmiri Gate area and Gehlot then drove with the dead body all the way to his dhaba – a distance of around 36 km or 24 miles. Police received information about the report on February 10.

"A police team was formed and on checking, no case or complaint about any missing girl was found reported. The team reached Mitraon village in search of the accused Gehlot, but his mobile phone was found switched off and he was not present in his house. Intensive search was made in the village and nearby area," Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, Ravindra Singh Yadav said.

However, Gehlot was nabbed by police from the Kair village crossing.

Initially he tried to mislead the police with some concocted explanations. When the interrogation got harsher, he relented and spilled the beans. He disclosed that he had killed his girlfriend, Nikki Yadav, in the intervening night of Feb.9 and 10 and kept her dead body in a refrigerator at his dhaba in a vacant plot situated on the outskirts of village Mitraon.

Sahil Gehlot further disclosed that in 2018, he met the woman at a coaching centre in Uttam Nagar area of west Delhi where he had joined to prepare for SSC exams.

"At that time, Nikki was also preparing for a medical entrance examination in Akash Institute at Uttam Nagar. Both used to travel to their respective institutes daily in the same bus, and they became friends, and later on fell in love," said the Special CP.

"The duo started meeting before and after the coaching classes. In February 2018 the accused took admission in D. Pharma in Galgotia College at Greater Noida and she also took admission in the same college in BA (English Hons.). Thereafter, both of them started living together at Greater Noida in a rented house. They became very close to each other and also travelled to several places such as Manali, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun etc," said the official.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, they returned to their homes and after the end of the lockdown, they again started living together in a rented house in the Dwarka area.

"The accused did not inform his family members about this relationship. His family was putting pressure on him to get married with some other girl and finally in December 2022, the engagement and marriage of the accused with another girl were fixed for February 9 and 10," the Special CP said.