In the latest development in the Delhi fridge murder case, post-mortem report of 25-year-old Haryana woman Nikki Yadav, who was allegedly strangled by her boyfriend with a charging cable, revealed her death occurred due to suffocation, the Delhi Police sources said on Wednesday.

Nikki was found dead in a freezer at Delhi’s Mitraon village on Tuesday and was taken from Rao Tularam Memorial Hospital to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for a post-mortem. According to the police sources, the post-mortem report has revealed that she died because of suffocation. There were marks on her neck and no other injury marks were found on the body.

According to doctors, when the body was in the fridge, it is difficult to tell the exact time of the death, because there is no natural process in the fridge. The viscera report has been preserved.

The police sources said the killing of the 25-year-old Haryana woman will be probed on the lines of the Shraddha Walkar murder case and that evidence is being collected on the basis of forensic investigation, as was collected in the Shraddha murder case.

In the CCTV cameras installed in the house where Nikki Yadav lived on rent in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, it can be seen in the CCTV footage, that Nikki was seen going to the terrace at around 1 pm, and can be seen coming out on the other day at around 9 pm.

Nikki was living in this flat with one of her sisters for the last five months and accused Sahil Gehlot used to visit her regularly.

She had told his neighbours that she was studying and mostly did not talk to the people there but the people present here have seen Sahil coming to her flat several times.

The post-mortem of the victim has been completed and the body of Nikki Yadav has been brought to the Mortuary in Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

Nikki was strangled to death allegedly by her live-in partner after she came to know of his impending marriage with another woman, police said.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court today sent a man accused of murdering his girlfriend after an argument over his impending marriage to another woman and stuffing her body in a refrigerator at his dhaba, to five-day police custody for interrogation.

Sahil Gehlot was arrested after the body of a woman, a resident of Haryana’s Jhajjar, was found inside a fridge at a dhaba, owned by him, on the outskirts of village Mitraon in Delhi.

He went ahead with his wedding the same day as killing his girlfriend Nikki Yadav, police told the court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Archana Beniwal of Dwarka Court sent Gehlot to five days’ police custody for the latter to investigate, collect evidence and obtain answers from the accused.

In an application moved by the police, it is said that they needed to take Gehlot to the places where he had gone with Yadav.

As per sources, the murder was committed near the Kashmiri Gate area and Gehlot then drove with the body all the way to his dhaba – a distance of around 36 km.

According to police, on February 10, an input was received that a person named Sahil Gehlot had killed his girlfriend and married another girl on the day of murder.

“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 Kair village crossing.

“On interrogation, initially, the accused tried to mislead the police. But on sustained interrogation, he disclosed that he had killed his girlfriend, Nikki Yadav, in the intervening night of February 9 and 10 and stuffed her body in a refrigerator at his dhaba in a vacant plot situated on the outskirts of village Mitraon,” Special Commissioner Yadav said.

“Nikki’s body was recovered from the fridge at the instance of the accused. A case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and the version disclosed by the accused is being verified during investigation,” said the official.

After his arrest on Tuesday, the accused Sahil Gehlot was presented before a Delhi court and sent to five-day police remand.

DCP Crime Branch Satish Kumar said that the accused is on remand for five days and an inquiry is on to identify the route taken that night.

“The accused is on remand for five days. Inquiry is on. Our multiple teams are working to identify the route taken that night. We are also scanning CCTV footages,” said the DCP crime.

Kumar further said that on February 9 there was an argument about his marriage and Sahil got and strangulated the victim with a mobile cable.

The accused was getting engaged on February 9. The accused went to meet Nikki at her flat and left early in the morning, they went to many places in Delhi, during which there was an argument about his marriage. During this, he got angry and strangulated the victim with a mobile cable, said DCP Crime Branch

“After that, he kept the victim’s body in the refrigerator in a dhaba in Mitraon village and then the accused went to his marriage. We are investigating deeply about this case,” he added.

Delhi Police Crime Branch, meanwhile, said it has recovered the car in which Sahil allegedly murdered Nikki. He also transported her mortal remains to the dhaba (eatery) in the same vehicle, police added.

According to the police, Nikki called Sahil after learning that he was going to marry another woman.

The woman’s body was recovered from a freezer in New Delhi’s Najafgarh area, police said on Tuesday.

The victim was a resident of Uttam Nagar in Delhi, they said.

According to police, the accused drove around Delhi for 30-40 km before going to the dhaba to dump Nikki’s body.

“Initial probe suggests that the accused was about to get married to another woman, and, the victim, after coming to know of it, raised an objection and insisted he marries her,” a police officer said earlier.

In a fit of rage, the accused killed her and hid the body in a freezer at his dhaba, the officer said, adding, “The incident occurred around two to three days ago.”