According to the police, Major Nikhil Rai Handa, whom the police suspected murdered Shailja Dwivedi, the wife of another major in the Indian Army, didn’t have many friends in the military. But he was very active on Facebook and that was how he came into contact with Shailja, in 2015 after seeing a photograph of her on a common friend’s timeline.
Police said that Handa then befriended her husband, Major Amit Dwivedi so that he could attend parties at the Dwivedi’s’ residence, investigators probing the case claimed. He was a frequent visitor to the Dwivedi residence in Nagaland. Matters between Major Dwivedi & Handa were fine until the husband saw a video call from Handa to his wife. After that, he told Handa never to drop by their house again.
Police claimed that after steady initial years in the Army, Major Handa’s career record started dipping. His last 2 years were largely devoted to attempting to persuade Shailja to divorce her husband and start a new life with him.
Police also claimed that to convince Shailja, Handa had also staged several flights with his wife so that she would believe he was a troubled marriage. A Delhi police source claimed,”He told us he had troubles in his married life as well and was pushed to the level where he could not think of any other option but to eliminate Shailja.”
Handa’s wife told police that there was nothing wrong between the two of them and they were a happy family. Handa’s father is an ex-merchant navy officer and a cousin serves in the Army as an officer.
According to police, he was close to his brother Rajat and told him that he had stabbed Shailja and was in need of money for a couple of days. Handa had promised to return the money in a week but was arrested within 24 hours of allegedly killing her.