Noida dowry murder accused Vipin Bhati killed wife over reels, beauty parlour: Report

As outrage mounted over the alleged killing of 26-year-old woman for dowry in Greater Noida, police on Sunday arrested her mother-in-law while her husband was shot in leg as he attempted to flee custody. Nikki was killed in Greater Noida, allegedly by her husband, Vipin Bhati, reportedly after an altercation over her posting reels on Instagram and her insistence on reopening a beauty parlour she ran earlier, the police said after the interrogation of the accused.

Bhati was arrested on Saturday and sent to 14-day judicial custody, according to the police.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, the police said Nikki had demanded the reopening of the beauty parlour which caused a fight with her husband Bhati who allegedly set her ablaze.

“Investigation revealed that around 3.30 pm, Nikki told Vipin that she and her sister would reopen the parlour. When he refused, Nikki said that no one could stop them from reopening, which Bhati opposed,” Kasna station house officer Dharmendra Shukla has been quoted assaying in the report.

“Vipin told her that in their family, posting reels on Instagram and running a parlour were not allowed. The issue turned ugly, and he started assaulting her,” Shukla further said.

Nikki’s elder sister Kanchan who was married to the same family, is a witness to the murder. Kanchan had earlier said both sisters were being tortured for Rs 36 lakh. “The torture began just six months after Nikki’s wedding,” she said.

According to Kanchan, Nikki was brutally thrashed on Thursday night before being set ablaze in front of her son. “That same evening, they brutally assaulted my sister in front of me and the children. They then threw some liquid on her and set her ablaze in front of my eyes,” she alleged.

Videos circulating online show Nikki being dragged by her hair by Vipin and another woman. Vipin, shirtless, appears to have blood stains on his stomach and back. Other clips show Nikki limping down the stairs while on fire, then sitting on the floor with severe burns. In one frame, someone throws water on her, apparently to soothe her injuries.

Greater Noida Additional DCP Sudhir Kumar said police were informed on Thursday night by a hospital that a woman with burn injuries had been admitted and later referred to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. “The woman died on the way to Safdarjung Hospital. A post-mortem was conducted. Based on her sister’s complaint, a case has been registered. The husband, Vipin, has been arrested,” he told News18.

According to the report by Hindustan Times, the two sisters were active on Instagram and YouTube, as they ran a channel for the parlour with the name ‘Makeover by Kannchan’ which has 54,500 followers, while Kanchan’s personal account has 22k followers. Nikki’s account is private and has 1,147 followers.

They actively posted content, including videos, and had garnered over 2.9 million views, the report said.

According to the report, Nikki’s brother Rohit Gurjar said that their family had invested Rs 8 lakh in Nikki’s beauty parlour nearly one-and-a-half years ago, as Vipin and his brother were unemployed.

“The family runs a small grocery shop from their home. My sisters were independently bearing their children’s expenses without asking for money from their husbands. The in-laws were also against their parlour business and damaged the entire parlour in February this year,” the victim’s brother has been quoted as saying.

The family of the victim, Nikki, who was allegedly set ablaze by her husband and in-laws, claimed that she had been tortured since her marriage in 2016 by them for a dowry demand of Rs 36 lakh, even after they had fulfilled their demand for Scorpio vehicle and a motorcycle.