Shahbad Dairy Murder: Accused bought knife 15 days ago, threw it near Rithala Metro station, say police

The knife used by the accused in the horrific Shahbad Dairy murder in Delhi was bought by him around 15 days ago from Haridwar and it was thrown near Rithala Metro Station after the crime, police said on Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the knife, they said.

The accused had planned the murder two days ago after the 16-year-old girl, Sakshi, rebuffed him in front of her friends and refused to mend their relationship, police said.

The accused (20) stabbed Sakshi over 20 times and then bludgeoned her with a cement slab, killing her on the spot. She was found to have 34 injury marks on her body and her skull was smashed.

In his statement to the police, which is part of the FIR, the victim's father said his daughter knew the accused and that she used to often mention his name.

"She was friends with him for a year. We tried to make her understand that she was young and should focus on her studies. But whenever we told her to stay away from him [the accused], she would get upset and go to her friend's place," the girl's father said.

The accused admitted to police that he bought the knife from Haridwar but was frequently changing his statement to mislead the investigators, a police officer said.

According to police, since the accused bought the knife days before the incident, it is not unlikely he was planning to kill her. Yet he claimed that he killed the girl in a fit of rage because she was constantly ignoring him, they said.

"The statements by him are being verified. Sometimes he says she ignored him which angered him. But he also suspected that Sakshi was getting involved with her former boyfriend," the officer said.

According to police, the accused could have been planning to attack the girl for some time as she had started meeting her ex-boyfriend. She was in a relationship with the former boyfried for three to four years before she fell for the accused, they said.

The accused claimed that Sakshi was keen to get back with the ex since he had a motorcycle, police said.

On Saturday, Sakshi warned the accused to stay away from her. She was with her friend Bhawna and her boyfriend Jhabru at the time. Jhabru too threatened to beat the accused if he came near Sakshi, police said.

The girl had broken up with the accused eight before the incident.

Police also said that Sakshi mentioned the name of her friend Neetu's husband, a known criminal in the area, to threaten the accused.

According to police, Sakshi and the accused had been seeing each other since June 2021. But for the last three to four months, she started moving away from the accused, they said.

The accused got drunk on Sunday afternoon and in the evening confronted Sakshi, who was on her way to the birthday party of her friend's child after changing clothes in a public convenience, police said.

After killing her, the accused went to a nearby park and sat there for a while.

Later, the accused went to Rithala Metro Station where he claimed to have thrown the knife in nearby bushes. He then took a bus for Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh from the Anand Vihar bus terminus, police said he was arrested from Bulandshahr after a call from his aunt to his father was traced to the location. He was brought to the national capital late on Monday evening.

According to police, Sakshi's ex, who is also in his 20s, is in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur and has been asked to come to Delhi to join the investigation.

Sahil was produced at a Delhi court here which sent him in police remand for two days.

Police said they will recreate the scene of the crime and also check the mobile phone of the accused and social media accounts to know whether he was in touch with other girls.

According to police, none of the bystanders made a PCR call. It was a police informer who alerted the police about the incident following which a team was rushed to the spot around 9:30 pm after a 25-minute delay, a police official said.

Special C.P. Sanjay Singh in a tweet urged people to call the police when they face such an extraordinary situation.

"Neither any of the eyewitnesses to the murder of the girl child Sakshi nor anyone in the locality made any PCR Call to Delhi Police. An ordinary person facing extraordinary circumstances, seeing a fellow citizen in a life-and-death situation can Stay calm and call 112," the officer tweeted.