Army Major's wife Shailja Dwivedi's murder: Five sensational crime cases involving armed forces officials
The Shailja Dwivedi-Nikhil Handa case is not the first of its kind. There have been several other gruesome cases, from Naval Commander Nanawati case to Neeraj Grover's murder, involving armed forces officials in history.
Army Major Nikhil Handa. | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspANI
New Delhi: The recent incident of the arrest of Army Major Nikhil Handa for allegedly brutally murdering fellow officer's wife was not first of its kind. From the Naval Commander KM Nanavati case which inspired Bollywood movie 'Rustom' to the gruesome murder of army officer's wife Shailja Dwivedi, there have been several occasions of shocking inappropriate and criminal conduct by officers in the armed forces in the past.
Here are some of the cases that have come to light at different points of time in history:
1. Nanavati case – 1959
In 1959, Naval Commander KM Nanavati was tried for the murder of his wife Sylvia's lover Prem Ahuja on April 27, as per a report by news agency ANI. In the shocking infamous incident, Commander Nanawati was accused under section 302 but however was initially declared not guilty by a jury.
After this verdict was denied by the Bombay High Court, he was re-tried and finally pardoned by the Bombay Governor Vijayalakshmi Pandit, as per a report by ANI. The case was widely covered and inspired several books and films.
2. Sikand murder case – 1982
A Delhi businessman, Kishan Sikand, was blasted with a parcel bomb in 1982 allegedly by Lt Col S J Chaudhary. Chaudhary was sentenced to life by a lower court in 2008 after facing trial for over two decades, as per a report by ANI.
The accused was furious over his estranged wife's proximity to Sikand, as per the statements from 70 witnesses. As their relations went downhill, the accused dispatched the bomb to the victim's residence in Sundar Nagar, Delhi. A CBI probe found that it was the same bomb which had been seized by the Indian Army in 1971 war.
However, Lt Col Chaudhary was acquitted by the Delhi High Court in 2009 and absolved of the charges of murder. The judgement was upheld by the Supreme Court as "plausible, logical and persuasive".
3. Captain Megha Razdan's death – 2007
Captain Megha Razdan, a woman Army officer, committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan by a bed sheet at her official residence in Kunjawani army camp in the outskirts of the Jammu in 2007.
She was from the 113 Engineering Regiment (Electrical and Mechanical Engineer). She married Captain Chaitanya Bhatwadekar of Maharashtra who was dealing with chemical and biological warfare in 2006, as per ANI.
However, after suffering ill-treatment from her husband when she came to know about Chaitanya's extra-marital affair with a Pune girl, she was allegedly forced to commit suicide on July 1, 2007.
4. Neeraj Grover murder case – 2008
The most gruesome of all cases was the murder of Neeraj Grover, a television executive working with Synergy Adlabs. The investigation began after Maria Susairaj, a struggling Kannada actress, filed a missing complaint about her friend Neeraj after leaving her house on May 7, 2008, as per a report by ANI.
His body, cut into several pieces, was found on the same day. The police arrested Susairaj and her fiance Emile Jerome, a naval officer, on charges of homicide in a fit of rage after he suspected an affair between the two.
Emile was declared guilty of culpable homicide and for destroying evidence while Susairaj was acquitted of murder charges, but was sentenced to three years in jail as she was found guilty of destroying evidence.
5. Army Major's wife Shailja Dwivedi murder case – 2018
Army Major Nikhil Raj Handa was arrested on Sunday from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut for allegedly murdering a fellow officer's wife Shailja Dwivedi, as per reports. He was "obsessed" with the woman and wanted to marry her, as per a statement by police.
As per reports, Major Nikhil picked up Shailja in his car from the Army base Hospital and moved towards the Ring Road. Over there they got involved in a heated argument and Handa, in a fit of rage, slashed the woman's neck with a knife. The woman got out of the car to save herself but the man brutally scythed her down before fleeing from the spot. Her body was found with her throat slit near the Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area.
Major Handa, who is married with two kids, knew Dwivedi and her husband, also a Major in the Army, since 2015 when both of them were posted in Nagaland. Handa was today sent to four-day police custody by a Delhi court, as per a report by ANI.
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