According to police, Nikki was allegedly strangled to death by her boyfriend.
All we want now is justice and the culprit should be hanged to death, said the father of Nikki Yadav, who was strangled to death and her body stuffed in a refrigerator by her boyfriend in southwest Delhi.
After killing Nikki, Sahil Gehlot had gone off to marry another woman the same day, police said. Sahil was arrested on Tuesday.
Waiting outside the mortuary of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in Delhi on Wednesday, Nikki's family members who had come from their village in Haryana's Jhajjar district, are yet to come to terms with the fact that their daughter, who was very ambitious and was preparing for her PhD, is no more.
The most impacted among them is perhaps Nidhi, Nikki's sister who was very attached to her.
"I am numb. I don't know what to say. I am currently not in a position to speak since I am yet to come to terms with what has happened to my sister," she told PTI over the phone.
The post-mortem of Nikki's body went on for over two hours. According to the preliminary opinion of doctors, the cause of death was strangulation.
While leaving their hometown, Nikki's father Sunil Yadav, who runs a motor repair business in Gurugram told media persons, "Our daughter is gone. She is no more. All we want now is justice. The culprit should be awarded the strictest punishment and should be hanged to death for his brutal crime." Nikki's elder cousin Jagdish Yadav, who was waiting outside the mortuary, said they were not aware about Nikki's relationship with Sahil nor had she ever told any member of her family about the man.
Recalling Nikki, he said, "She was studying MA and wanted to pursue PHD further and that is why was staying at a rented flat here in Uttam Nagar.
"She had a very friendly and healthy relationship with her parents and other members of the family. She used to speak to her parents over phone daily but she had never mentioned about this boy (Sahil)." Asked about Nikki's last conversation with her family, he said her phone was found switched off on Friday following which her father tried to reach her friends in Delhi who informed him that her phone was with Sahil.
On Saturday, her father managed to contact Sahil who told him that he was busy with his wedding preparations" and that Nikki had gone away for a trip outside Delhi, he said.
"Later, we got to know from the police about her murder. This culrpit should be given the stringent punishment. He should be hanged to death," he added.
After her body was handed over to her family, her uncle Parveen Kumar said the family has lost their daughter and what more worse can happen now.
"We have lost our daughter. Is their any worse that can happen?..." he said while leaving the mortuary with the body after post-mortem. Her family said Nikki's last rites will be conducted on Wednesday at their native place in their village in Jhajjar.
According to police, Nikki was allegedly strangled to death by her 24-year-old boyfriend who stuffed her body inside a refrigerator of his dhaba (eatery) in southwest Delhi and went off to marry another woman the same day.
The incident came to light on Valentine's Day and it was on the instance of the accused that four days after the murder, Nikki's body was recovered on Tuesday morning from the refrigerator at the eatery.
The police said the accused had hidden from his girlfriend the fact that his marriage was fixed with another woman. When Nikki came to know about the wedding, she had a heated argument with Gehlot which led to her murder, 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 couple had been in a relationship for the past few years and Nikki wanted to marry the accused, the police said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)