Did Instagram reels and a beauty parlour trigger Nikki Bhati’s murder? – Firstpost

Nikki Bhati, a 28-year-old woman was set afire by her husband Vipin Bhati at their home in Kasna of Greater Noida. The incident took place on 21st August after noisy argument over her posting reels on Instagram and wanting to reopen a beauty parlour, which she use to run earlier as per police after the interrogation of the accused.

Vipin also shared that he had “no remorse” for the incident, which led to her death, as per police.

“The suspect, Bhati, snatched a police pistol in an attempt to escape. In retaliatory fire, he suffered a bullet injury to his legs and was taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment,” said Greater Noida additional deputy commissioner of police Sudhir Kumar as per HT adding Daya Bhati, Nikki’s mother-in-law was also arrested late in the evening.

While the family members of Nikki alleged that Vipin and his family killed her over dowry demands, police said that they are investigating the case from all angles as they were married around eight-and-a-half years ago.

“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 said.

“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 added.

Both sisters were active on Instagram and their YouTube Channel. They were running the YouTube channel of their parlour under the name “Makeover by Kannchan.” While the Instagram has 54,500 followers, Kanchan has 22K followers on her personal account. Nikki, who had a private account, has 1,147 followers. The sisters were actively posting videos and content, which garnered over 2.9 million views.

On Saturday, Nikki’s sister Kanchan, demanded justice in a video

“We were informed by my sister Kanchan Bhati around 5.30pm that she was burned alive by her husband Vipin Bhati following a dowry dispute. Kanchan and her in-laws (Vipin’s parents) rushed her from hospital to hospital, as Vipin fled the spot after the incident. My sisters, Nikki and Kanchan, were married into the same household in Sirsa in December 2016. Nikki married Vipin, while Kanchan married his elder brother, Rohit Bhati. After two years of marriage, the family started demanding dowry, especially luxury cars, as we owned them,” Nikki’s brother Rohit Gurjar said.

“In the nine years of marriage, Nikki returned home multiple times due to dowry disputes, but it was later resolved.”

“We invested around ₹8 lakh in our sisters’ beauty parlour around one-and-a-half years ago as Vipin and Rohit are 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,” said Rohit.

Nikki and Kanchan were operating the parlour on the third floor of their home in Sirsa, as per their family.

“It was revealed that after torching his wife, the suspect immediately fled his home and went to his relatives’ house. The relationship between husband and wife had soured to its peak in the fortnight leading up to the incident,” said an investigator requesting anonymity. “He revealed that he was strongly against the parlour business,” the investigator added.

The family members asked Kanchan to record the video as they sought to collect evidence of years of abuse.

“Nikki’s father-in-law was accompanied by my sister Kanchan when they took her to the hospital in Delhi. But when he came to know that she died, he escaped from the moving van,” said Rohit Gurjar.

“A fight also broke out between Nikki and Vipin around a week before the incident. But as always, he apologised in front of elderly people and promised not to pick a fight again. Due to social defamation, we were compromising for the past few years. Now Kanchan, who has two kids, has returned home after the incident,” said Nikki’s another brother Vicky Payla.

A case was registered under Section 103 (murder), Section 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), and Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Kasna police station against Vipin Bhati, Daya Bhati and Nikki’s brother-in-law Rohit Bhati.