Major arrested for alleged role in murder of Army officer’s wife

Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 24 

The Delhi Police arrested Army Major Nikhil Handa from Meerut’s Daurala on Sunday for allegedly killing his colleague Major Amit Dwivedi’s wife Shelja (35), whose mutilated body was found in Delhi on Saturday. 

DCP Vijay Kumar (West District) said Major Handa was spotted with the deceased hours before she went missing from the Army Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment. Information gathered from the hospital and the victim’s cellphone had led them to Major Handa. 

He said they were not ruling out love affair or personal enmity as the motive. Major Handa is believed to have told the police that Shelja was pressuring him to marry her. Call Detail Record (CDR) shows the victim’s last call was for Major Handa.

Shelja’s body was found near Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area, repeatedly run over by a vehicle to make it look like an accident. The police were informed that a woman had died in a mishap. On closer inspection, they found the throat slit. This raised suspicion and they began investigations for homicide. Sources said Shelja was dropped at the Army Base Hospital in her husband’s official vehicle at 10.30 am. When the driver came back to pick her up, he learnt she had skipped the scheduled physiotherapy session. The police searched the CCTV footage and spotted Shelja in a silver Honda City car with Major Handa. 

DCP Vijay said Shelja was dropped at the base hospital at 10.30 am and Major Dwivedi had filed a ‘missing person’ complaint with the police four hours later. Major Dwivedi was to leave for Uganda on a UN mission. The couple were married in 2009. They have a six-year-old son. Shelja Dwivedi did her MTech in Urban Planning and Masters in Geography at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and also taught as a lecturer for five years on an ad hoc basis. Her brutal murder has left the university fraternity shocked. 

Dr Balvinder Singh, former head of Guru Ramdass School of Planning, described her as a versatile person. “She was sincere and disciplined, both as a student and teacher,” he recalled.

Associated with NGO “Catch and Care,” Shelja would teach under-privileged children in her spare time. Winner of “Mrs India Earth” competition in 2017, she was fond of music, dance and cooking, sources said. 

(With inputs by PK Jaiswar in Amritsar)