The video lasts less than 60 seconds. A woman, her clothes ablaze, stumbles down concrete stairs. Behind the camera, someone films before the recording abruptly ends. Within hours, this footage would be overlaid with trending Bollywood songs and transformed into Instagram reels. The woman—28-year-old Nikki Bhati—was dead. But her story was just beginning its viral afterlife.
In a week since Nikki died on August 21, 2025, evidence has gone viral before reaching court, hashtags are determining guilt or innocence, and police officers find themselves competing with social media algorithms for control of the narrative.
"At this point, social media seems to have more evidence and investigative insights," admitted a police officer investigating the case, speaking anonymously.
In the case of Nikki Bhati's death, the internet has become both crime scene and courtroom, and the Instagram users have turned into detectives, prosecutors, and judges.
The Reels Game
Kanchan Bhati understood the power of narrative. For years, she had been curating the digital life of two sisters on Instagram with tens of thousands of followers watching their daily temple visits, perfectly synchronised dance moves and their aspirational beauty salon business. The two sisters were married in 2016 to two brothers living in the same house.
The sisters moved through their content like choreographed performers: steps in sync, hair flicks timed to the beat, captions declaring their unbreakable bond. Just two days before the incident, a reel featured them walking hand-in-hand to the audio: "tu sirf behen nahi, jigar ka tukda hai mera (you are not only my sister, but a piece of my soul)".
On August 22, the day after Nikki died, Kanchan's Instagram content underwent a complete transformation: it became a quest for justice. The burning footage appeared first— the horrifying documentation of her sister's final moments. Then came the aftermath. Kanchan posted videos and photos of her sister, Nikki, smiling and alive, set to trending music, with text overlays asking for justice.
The Noida Police arrested Nikki’s husband, Vipin Bhati, his brother Rohit, and their parents, Daya and Satveer, based on Kanchan's FIR accusing them of murder.
Nikki’s family now claims that the sisters were repeatedly tortured over escalating dowry demands. But the paperwork and the timeline don’t align. Kanchan initially told police in her FIR that their marriage was performed "without any give or take of dowry." The dowry angle appeared only later, after the reels went viral.
The reels coincided with statements by Nikki’s father to media outlets, who allege that Vipin and his family made repeated demands for dowry, some of which were fulfilled.
The Evidence Ecosystem
In the analog world of criminal investigation, evidence follows a chain of custody. In this case, it is following the algorithm. As Kanchan continued posting more videos, more accusations, more appeals for justice, her account accumulated likes, shares, comments, and most importantly, credibility through engagement.
A police officer, investigating the case, captured the absurdity of the situation: "Every day there is new information in this case, as it is with any crime investigation. But here, we have an additional job of verifying these videos."
The police are now conducting two parallel investigations: one into Nikki's death, another into the viral content documenting it. In addition to questioning witnesses, family members, and neighbours, police are now trying to authenticate timestamp in viral CCTV footage, analyse family dynamics on Instagram reels, including ascertaining the sequence of events as visible in the viral video of Nikki, recorded by Kanchan.
When the police stripped away the music from the burning video, they discovered crucial audio evidence: a female voice exclaiming at Nikki, "What have you done!"— words that could reshape the entire case.
Media reports say Kanchan herself shot the burning video before fainting after being attacked. In the FIR (as accessed by Decode), Kanchan alleged that her mother-in-law, Daya, handed a flammable substance to Vipin who poured it over Nikki and set her alight. When she resisted, Kanchan alleges, she was beaten by her husband Rohit and her in-laws.
Another graphic video, shared on August 23,showing Vipin dragging Nikki by her hair while both are bloodied, was posted as current evidence but likely dates to February according to police sources quoted in media reports.
The Media Coverage
In the last week, journalists have crowded into the Bhati neighborhood in Noida, trying to untangle the clashing narratives.
“Instagram has more updates about this case than the police. They are in some ways playing catch-up,” a journalist tracking the case for a leading newspaper told Decode.
A reporter for Noida-based NMF News, a hyperlocal YouTube channel with 22 million subscribers, said that they are treating leads from Instagram with the same weight as police sources. "Both sides are giving us information we are airing," explained the reporter. "Our job is to narrate the story as it's happening." Delving into the case, the reporter said, "The neighbours say the family had issues with the sisters' Instagram reels. The husband's family is gathering CCTV footage, old chats and videos to show that they are being framed. Nikki's family, on the other hand, has their own set of proof."
Make In Media, a Delhi-based one-person news operation, has interviewed Vipin's family, Nikki's immediate and extended family, the couple's neighbours and Nikki's estranged sister-in-law who has since alleged that Nikki's brother and her parents tortured her for dowry, forcing her to separate. The videos have over 3 lakh views each.
The Influencer Life Of The Sisters
Kanchan and Nikki had built a perfectly curated version of their lives, online. Their digital empire spanned multiple platforms: personal Instagram accounts, a business profile for their beauty salon "Makeover By Kanchan," and a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers.
They weren't just documenting their lives; they were performing them.
The sisters' content revealed a carefully constructed world where they were always together, always happy and always in control. They drove confidently through Sirsa's streets, posed as brides in elaborate lehengas for their salon's promotional content, and shared domestic scenes of vegetable chopping and child-rearing with the polished ease of lifestyle influencers. On her YouTube account, Kanchan’s posts from 2019 show her giving tips for weight loss and healthy living.
But cracks were visible in hindsight. Older posts hinted at marital tensions through motivational quotes about how husbands should behave. Their brother and mother appeared regularly in their content, while their husbands remained conspicuously absent.
Vipin's own Instagram account tells a parallel story of absence. Featuring his cars, bikes, and friends from the Gujjar community—including police personnel—his feed excludes Nikki entirely, even in posts dating to 2022.
Police are now investigating whether the sisters’ prominent online presence itself became a source of marital conflict, a meta-question of whether digital fame contributed to real-world violence.
Algorithmic Justice
As the police joined the dots and media reports highlighted inconsistencies in the case, social media didn't just report on the story—it actively shaped it.
Two competing hashtags emerged: #JusticeForNikki and #JusticeForVipin, each supported by hundreds of reels and thousands of comments from the Gujjar community. Nikki's supporters shared domestic abuse awareness content and devastating footage of her young son describing how his father set his mother ablaze. Vipin's defenders countered with grainy CCTV footage showing him at a shop during the incident, the visual evidence of his alleged innocence.
Each side weaponised the platform’s features. Slow-motion effects emphasised emotional moments. They carefully chose soundtracks ranging from heartbreak ballads to Haryanvi folk songs to convey innocence or guilt to millions of viewers.
One account, Cheenu Baisla Gurjari, has posted over 35 reels supporting Vipin, using the sisters' own archived content—videos of the couple dancing and laughing—as evidence of marital harmony. Meanwhile, reels supporting Vipin peddle suicide theories while comment sections shame the sisters for their daily social media activity.
The case has even generated mistaken identity harassment. Aanchal Vipin Bhati, who shares a passing resemblance to Nikki and whose husband shares the accused's name, has been flooded with abuse from users who misidentify her as the victim.
When Platforms Become Police
While the police grapple with verifying evidence strewn around Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp, experts say social media evidence, while increasingly common in Indian courts, carries significant verification challenges.
"By the time the video is recorded, uploaded, downloaded and reaches court, its nature and essence has changed," said cyber crime lawyer Pankaj Bafna. "It's easier to build a narrative on social media than in court."
"It does not count as a prima facie genuine video," Bafna said. He explained that introducing information sourced via social media while now accepted, is a time-consuming process for the police. "They have to reach out to the platform to help verify it in written form and most platforms ignore requests unless ordered by a court."
A former Mumbai cybercrime officer warned that visual evidence online should be viewed with skepticism: "An image can be manipulated in several ways, including recent AI tools. It's difficult to establish the before and after of such visuals."
And even when digital evidence makes it to court, a Delhi-based criminal lawyer noted, the burden of proof usually falls on whoever introduces it—not on the millions who shared it.
As the investigation continues, new videos surface daily. New allegations emerge hourly. The truth becomes increasingly difficult to discern from the noise of viral content and community mobilisation.
For Nikki Bhati's family, Instagram offered a platform to demand justice when traditional systems felt inadequate. For millions of viewers, those same pieces of content became a daily drama series with real stakes and real consequences. Meanwhile, for the law enforcement, it created an investigative challenge.
The only certainty in this: Nikki Bhati is dead, and the internet will not let anyone forget how she died—even if no one can agree on why.
