Major Nikhil Rai Handa (40), who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Sunday for allegedly killing a fellow officer’s wife, was reportedly “obsessed” with the victim and wanted to marry her.

The body of Shailza Dwivedi (35), wife of Major Amit Dwivedi, was found with her throat slit near the Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area on Saturday. Her body had been run over by a vehicle several times.

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Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vijay Kumar said the accused, Major Nikhil Handa, was “obsessed” with Shailza and wanted to marry her.

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The DCP told media that Major Handa had known Major Amit Dwivedi and Shailza since 2015 when they were both posted in Nagaland’s Dimapur.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Shailza’s younger brother said his sister and Handa were friends but later he began to stalk her.

“He misunderstood the nature of their relationship. My brother-in-law suspected that Handa was stalking her, and asked her not to speak to him,” The Indian Express quoted Shailza’s brother as saying.

After four years in Dimapur, Amit received transfer orders to the UN Mission in Sudan following which Shailza decided to move back to Amritsar. As Amit had to come to Delhi for training before his posting in Sudan, he asked Shailza to accompany him. She was suffering from an ankle problem, and Amit wanted her to get treated at the Army Base Hospital in Delhi, the report added. Shailza had arrived in Delhi only a few days ago.

Handa, who is married and has two children, had reportedly called Shailza at least 3,000 times this year, according to the police. The data has been recovered from his call details.

After Shailza went missing, her husband had spotted Major Handa in the CCTV footage of the hospital, where his wife had gone for a physiotherapy session. He told the police that he suspected Handa.

The police then started looking for Handa and found that he was in touch with a couple of friends and was hiding at the Officers’ Mess in Meerut Cantonment.

A Delhi Police team reached Meerut and nabbed Major Handa when he was trying to escape from there in his car, officials said.

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The accused had come to Delhi from Dimapur around a fortnight ago on the pretext of treatment.

On Saturday, he met Shailza and they had an argument while they were sitting in his car. He allegedly slit her throat and threw her out of the vehicle, the police said.

The police recovered two knives from his car.