Greater Noida: Nikki and Vipin had been married for almost a decade. But over the last three years, quarrels became routine. On Saturday, one of those fights turned deadly. Vipin doused his 24-year-old wife with paint thinner and set her on fire. At the root of it, police said, was Nikki’s Instagram account, which she ran with her sister Kanchan.
“It was never a case of dowry. The couple had been married for ten years and Vipin had vast land holdings to his name. He simply didn’t like her posting reels and photos on Instagram,” said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.
It was Nikki’s desire to express herself to the world that unsettled Vipin. The tension was further fuelled by neighbours whispering about her videos and his friends mocking him. Her reels—once her only source of joy—slowly became the reason for her gruesome killing.
Nikki’s killing is part of a growing pattern where women face violence for asserting autonomy in public spaces. Police and women’s rights groups point out that while the triggers may have changed over the decades — from wearing jeans in the 1990s, to owning smartphones in the 2000s, and now to posting on social media — the underlying conflict remains about women’s assertion of independence.
Not long ago, in July, Radhika Yadav — a former state-ranked tennis player and social media creator — was killed by her father after taunts from society. Barely a month later, Nikki’s killing has once again shaken Delhi-NCR.
Police said Vipin confessed that his wife’s social media activity was the reason behind their disputes. At the same time, Nikki’s parents claimed that her in-laws had demanded Rs 36 lakh and a Scorpio, which police said was the family’s attempt to conceal her Instagram account — something they feared society would not accept.
“During interrogation, Vipin told us he had been asking his wife to stop posting on Instagram. He even had a problem with the parlour she ran from the third floor of their house. The couple fought daily over this until it took such a tragic turn,” said Dharmendra Kumar Shukla, SHO Kasna.
On Sunday evening, the police arrested Nikki’s mother-in-law, Daya. Meanwhile, Vipin’s father Satyaveer and brother Rohit are on the run.
The video of the incident has gone viral, with #JusticeForNikki trending across social media platforms. Political leaders have joined the chorus, demanding justice for the 24-year-old. Former CM and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted: “Extremely heartbreaking. Utterly condemnable…”
‘Threatened by her independence’
It was a social media account named Kanchan Makeovers and a beauty parlour on the third floor of their Sirsa village home in Great Noida, which lay at the centre of the storm. On the account, Nikki often appeared in videos showing off her new suits or freshly coloured hair. Sometimes, the sisters were seen driving a BMW; at other times, they acted out popular songs.
Together, Nikki and Kanchan ran the parlour, styling clients and posting their photographs online. Over the last three years, their Instagram account had drawn more than 53,000 followers, and the sisters had become celebrated makeup artists in Sirsa. For weddings and functions, women queued at their door, forcing them to introduce an appointment system.
But in February, as fights and beatings at home became more frequent, Nikki and Kanchan shut down the salon. Nikki also made her Instagram account private. The profile photo showed her young son. The page had 1,145 followers and 356 posts, but now stands locked.
“Now, when my sister had also closed the salon and turned her account private, why did he kill her? How can killing for a social media account be justified?” asked 20-year-old Atul, Nikki’s younger brother.
Five days ago, Nikki and Kanchan had posted a video of themselves holding hands, their hair swept by the wind. A song in Hindi played in the background, whose lyrics included: “This is for my sister. You are not only my sister but a piece of my heart.” The reel drew more than 26,000 likes and 163 comments.
Atul recalls how his brother-in-law Vipin would often come home drunk and create scenes at the parlour. “Once, during a celebration, he assaulted the women who had come to get ready. Their husbands then came and thrashed Vipin,” he said.
On Atul’s iPhone now are two final videos of his sister Nikki: one he filmed on Rakshabandhan, showing Nikki dressed in a pink suit, teasing him as they drove home in an SUV. The other is of Nikki crying as she ran down the stairs—her body engulfed in flames at her in-laws’ home.
What bothered Vipin most, Atul said, was his wife earning money for herself. With that money, she would often buy clothes for her son and brothers. Nikki’s independence threatened him.
“He never understood. He had a problem with my sister earning her own money, which made her independent and gave her the confidence to make her own decisions,” Atul added, sitting in the family’s home in Dadri.
Today, the Instagram account of Kanchan Makeovers has become a record of the tragedy. Kanchan now uses it to post details of her killing — from videos of Nikki twirling in new clothes to clips showing her husband and mother-in-law assaulting her and setting her ablaze.
Revenge of Gurjar community
On Sunday afternoon, SHO Shukla led his team to Sirsa village, where Nikki and Vipin had lived, to recreate the sequence of events. They stopped at the store from where Vipin had bought two cans of paint thinner. As the officers walked him through the spot, Vipin suddenly snatched a pistol and tried to flee. A single shot to his leg brought him down.
By evening, word of the “langda encounter”—as such police shootings are called locally in Uttar Pradesh—had reached Nikki’s parental home in Dadri. There, amid wails and prayers, her father, Bikhari Singh, sat on a cot surrounded by mourners. “I want Vipin to be killed in an encounter. I want Yogi Sarkar to bulldoze his house as punishment,” he said, struggling through tears.
At Singh’s home in Roopwas village, the gathering was not only about grief. Young Gurjar men stood shoulder to shoulder, swearing they would not let the murder be forgotten. They raised appeals—“Sher Gurjar jaag jao (Wake up, the Gurjar tigers). Our sister has been brutally killed. How can we let this incident just slide by?”
And then came the ultimatum: “If by tomorrow police don’t take strong action against Vipin and his family, the Gurjar boys of Dadri will take the law into their own hands.”
Nikki’s mother was not present there—she had fainted on hearing the news of her daughter’s death and was admitted to Kashi Ram Hospital.
In the last three years, Singh said, several panchayats have been called. Each time Vipin came home drunk and assaulted Nikki, she would run back to her parents’ house and refuse to return. A panchayat would then be convened. Nikki’s father, along with men from Dadri’s Roopwas village, would travel to Sirsa in Greater Noida to meet Vipin’s family. Each time, the resolution was the same: Vipin won’t be violent with his wife again. And each time, the promise was broken.
Just two days before the killing, another such panchayat was held. Once again, Vipin’s family assured that no such incident would take place. But within 48 hours, a phone call shattered the assurance and shook Bikhari Singh.
“My daughter Kanchan called to inform me that Nikki has been set ablaze and they are going to the Fortis hospital. I rushed to the hospital,” said Bikhari Singh.
At Fortis, doctors referred Nikki to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital owing to 80 per cent burn injuries. On the way, Singh noticed her pulse weakening. “I told the ambulance driver to take her to Kailash hospital instead, as she wouldn’t survive the long journey,” he said. By the time the family reached Safdarjung, Nikki had died.
The remaining silence
The Kasna police station is buzzing with phone calls. SHO Dharmendra Kumar Shukla has been responding to one officer after another. “Sir, I am investigating. We will arrive at something soon,” said Shukla to an officer.
The FIR based on the complaint by Nikki’s sister, Kanchan, read, “When I tried to help my sister, my husband Rohit started beating me up. Vipin put an inflammable liquid on her, handed over by the mother-in-law, and soon, my sister was burning in flames.”
The police have carried out multiple search operations at the house. The police had filed an FIR under 103 (1) (murder), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), and 61 (2) (Criminal conspiracy) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
In Sirsa village, the house where Nikki and Vipin lived is now all quiet. The four-storey building with glass windows, which once buzzed with salon customers and the laughter of children, is empty. The lane leading to it wears a desolate look. Neighbours are reluctant to speak, quickly sidestepping any mention of the incident. Most of the houses in the lane are occupied by tenants doing odd jobs.
“We don’t know anything. We just shifted last month. But now, we are planning to leave,” said a woman who eloped from Delhi with a man to live here. The couple is staying in hiding.
During the investigation, another angle emerged: Vipin’s relationship with another woman, which had also caused tension between the couple. Police said the issue had been resolved at the time.
But for the eloped couple from Delhi, the incident has sent shivers down their spine. With police visiting the area frequently, they fear being caught. But there is another fear weighing on the woman.
“I am afraid… I just eloped. Can I trust him enough that he won’t kill me over a disagreement? Or did I make the wrong decision?” she said, whispering.
(Edited by Prashant and Ratan Priya)