It is chillingly simple to imagine how the tragic death of Nikki Bhati will play out. The breathtaking pace at which the case is twisting and turning, it is not outlandish to surmise that once the media attention dies down, once the defence lawyers get going, and once it becomes clear that a “dowry death" charge does not apply as the marriage happened in 2016 although there are other aspects that do fulfil the technical legal parameters, the case will be, well, deadlocked.

“Conflicting" claims have already surfaced about the “actual" circumstances of Nikki’s death. The case may therefore become so murky, uncertain and weak due to multiple theories, destruction or “disappearance" of evidence and even poor framing of the charges that the media glare will turn to the next horrific crime or political potboiler and the police will also quietly bury the investigation, letting the snail’s pace of the judicial system do the rest, once the accused get bail.

The police have filed cases against her husband Vipin under various sections not pertaining to dowry. But already there are “leaks" averring that the initial assessment that she had an argument with Vipin and her in-laws over her Instagram account and beauty parlour that led to her being doused with paint and set alight may not be what happened. Police in India are not generally known either for consistency or for actually framing “water-tight" cases anyway.

Indeed, multiple media reports have said that CCTV footage has been “found" purportedly showing Vipin far away from the house at a store at the time Nikki was engulfed in flames. Some reports also say now that her seven-year-old son—who told media crews clearly on Day One that he saw his father slap his mother, douse her with something and set her on fire with a lighter—was also allegedly not even on the premises when Nikki suffered those fatal burns. The plot thickens.

And then there is a report that the private........

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