Major held for colleague's wife's murder

An Army Major was arrested on Sunday for his alleged role in the murder of his colleague's wife whose body was found with her throat slit on a road in Delhi Cantonment, police said.

Major Nikhil Handa was taken into custody from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. "He is being interrogated. The reason behind the murder is still not known," a police official said.

Handa is the prime suspect in the murder of Shailja Dwivedi, 35, wife of another Major, Amit Dwivedi. She was found dead on Saturday afternoon near Brar Square.

Shailja's body also had marks that appeared to have been caused after being run over by a vehicle. The police suspect that she could have been murdered first and then run over by the killer or by some other vehicle after her body was thrown on the road.

Police said Handa was a common friend of the couple and was believed to have had a dispute over some undisclosed matter.

Handa came under suspicion as he was the last person to be seen with the victim outside the Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment which Shailja visited on Saturday morning for a physiotherapy session.

Shailja, who hailed from Amritsar, had been coming to the hospital for the last four days for treatment of her ankle.

A video footage captured by CCTV cameras installed outside the hospital showed both Shailja and Handa seated inside a Honda City car, police said.

"After that Handa went missing and his phone was switched off. He was held in Meerut in the same Honda City car," a police official privy to the case said.

Police claimed to have recovered important clues from the victim's mobile phone and her call records.

Shailja had left home at 10 a.m. on Saturday in an Army vehicle for a physiotherapy session. When the driver went to pick her up later, he was informed that she did not attend the session.

He went back to her residence in Parade Ground area and informed her husband who began a search.

Shailja's body was spotted by a passerby who informed police. The body remained unidentified for some hours. The husband later went to Naraina Police station to lodge a missing complaint where he identified Shailja's body.

Shailja and Handa are believed to have met in Dimapur in Nagaland where her husband is posted. The victim's husband recently moved to Delhi for training and has been residing in Army quarters in Naraina near the Cantonment area.

--IANS

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