Facebook posts claiming 23 year old Nikki Yadav was strangled to death in Delhi by her Muslim boyfriend Mohammed Sahil who then stored her body in a fridge, are false as the accused in the murder is a Hindu man.
BOOM found that the accused is 24-year-old Sahil Gehlot, son of a Virender Singh.
According to the reports, Gehlot allegedly murdered Yadav by strangling her and disposed off her body by placing it in a refrigerator in his eatery, following which he got married to another woman. Gehlot and Yadav were allegedly in a relationship for over four years but his parents were unaware and had fixed his marriage to another woman. The murder took place sometime on February 9 but was discovered on February 14, 2023.
The murder bears similarities to the murder of Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner, Aaftab Poonawala who chopped her body into several places and stored in the refrigerator for days before disposing it off in various places.
The viral posts claim that the accused in a Mohammed Sahil and the case is one of 'Love Jihad'. Love Jihad refers to an alleged conspiracy by Muslim men to lure women into converting to Islam on the pretext of love or marriage.
Right leaning website, OpIndia Hindi in their report about the incident, only mentioned the first name of the accused - Sahil - and not his full name. The headline and strap of the story both reffered to the accused as "Sahil" and in the story too, the website did not clarify that his name is Sahil Gehlot.
An archive of the report can be accessed here
Meanwhile OpIndia in their English language story has mentioned his full name.
Separately, several Facebook posts on the murder have falsely claimed that the accused is a Muslim.
The caption in Hindi translate to, "Mashallah! Chopped her body into pieces and stored it in the fridge...the heavenly end of Nikki Yadav and Mohammed Sahil's secular love story)
(Original text in Hindi - माशाल्लाह...! टुकड़े टुकड़े कर के फ्रिज़ में दफ़नाया...निक्की यादव और मोहम्मद साहिल की सेकुलर प्रेम-कहानी का आसमानी अंत)
FACTCHECK
BOOM found that the claims are false and that the accused name is a Hindu man named Sahil Gehlot, son of Virender Singh and that there was no communal angle to the murder.
We first read through news reports about the incident and found several reports saying the accused is 24-year-old Sahil Gehlot. A Hindustan Times story called the accused by his full name - Sahil Gehlot and quoted Ravindra Yadav, the special commissioner of police (crime), Delhi for details about when the couple met. In the quote, Ravindra Yadav says, "In January 2018, Gehlot joined a coaching institute in Uttam Nagar to prepare for the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams. Around the same time, Yadav, who was from Jhajjar district in Haryana, was preparing for medical entrance exams in another institute in Uttam Nagar. As they both travelled in the same bus, they became friends."
Wire agency ANI also quoted the Deputy Commisioner of the Delhi Crime Branch as saying, "A man,Sahil Gehlot murdered his friend Nikki Yadav by strangulating her using mobile cable when she called him to confront as she came to know about him getting married to someone else.Sahil took her body to his dhaba in fields and stuffed it in refrigerator."
We also found a press release about the case issued by the Delhi crime branch where they detailed the murder and named the arrested accused as Sahil Gehlot, 24, son of Virender Singh and resident of Padarth Rana, Mitraon, Delhi.
The press release mentions the arrested accused Sahil Gehlot everywhere and does not mention any communal angle to the incident.
We also found a Hindustan Times report which quoted two relatives of the arrested accused who spoke about boycotting Gehlot from the community. The report quoted Jaiveer Singh Gandhi and Hawa Singh, as saying, "Nobody from our family or village has met him (Gehlot) or extended any support to him since his crime came to light and he was arrested by the police. A crime like murder of a woman is not acceptable in our society. And that is why we have boycotted him."