The Delhi Police, investigating the Shraddha Walkar murder case, is now probing whether accused Aftab Amin Poonawala had rented a flat in Delhi’s Chhatarpur as part of a conspiracy to kill her. Aftab was arrested for killing his girlfriend Shraddha, dismembering her body into 35 pieces and disposing of them as the Delhi Police solved the six-month-old murder case.
Police said Aftab was a food blogger who worked at a call center in the national capital. They said that the couple often quarreled.
As per the report, they met on a dating site, were in a relationship since 2019 and then they moved to Delhi this year, police sources told news agency ANI. Earlier they were in Maharashtra.
Later, Aftab rented a flat in Chhatarpur and moved there respectfully. She was reportedly strangled to death in her Chhatarpur flat on May 18. The police learned that the flat was rented out just a few days before the murder.
“Whether Aftab had already conspired to kill her is also a matter of investigation,” police sources said.
The accused, who cut the body of the accused into 35 pieces, told the police that he used to go out at 2 am to dispose of them.
Aftab completed his graduation and his family lived in Mumbai, police found.
“Aftab’s social media handles reveal that he has been blogging food for a while, but he hasn’t done any videos for a long time. His last post was in February, after which there was no activity on his profile. He has more than 28,000 Instagram followers,” the source said. .
According to the police, Shraddha and Aftab both used to work in the same call center a few days ago.
It is come to know that after the murder, Aftab used to return home between 6-7 in the evening and take the pieces of the body kept in the fridge. He used to carry the body parts in a black foil but would throw them in the forest without the foil to avoid suspicion, sources said.
Aftab was arrested after the victim’s father filed a complaint. He has been remanded for five days, police said yesterday.
According to the police, after searching on Google, Aftab cleaned the blood stains from the floor with some chemicals and threw away the stained clothes. Then he took the body to the bathroom and bought a fridge from the nearby shop. Later he cut the body into pieces and put it in the fridge.
“The two met on a dating app in Mumbai. They were in a live-in relationship for three years and moved to Delhi. It was after this that Shraddha started pressurizing Aftab to marry her,” Ankit Chauhan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) ). South Delhi news agency ANI reported.
“The two often quarreled and it got out of control. In this particular instance which happened on May 18, the man lost his temper and strangled her to death,” Mr Chauhan said.
“The accused told us that he cut her body into pieces and dumped it in a forest area near Chhatarpur enclave. He has been arrested and investigation is on,” he added.
According to sources, Aftab used to sleep in the same room where he cut the body of the deceased. Sources said he used to look at the face after putting it in the fridge and clean the fridge after disposing of the body parts.
According to sources, Aftab had relationship with many girls before Shraddha. Before committing crime, he also watched many crime movies and web series, including the American crime drama series Dexter.
In September, a friend of Shraddha told her family that they had not been in touch with her for the past two-and-a-half months and that her mobile number had also been switched off. Her family checked her social media accounts and did not get any updates during this period.
In November, his father, Vikas Madan Walker, who hails from Palghar in Maharashtra, approached the Mumbai police and lodged a missing person’s complaint.
Investigation revealed that Aftab and Shraddha had moved to Delhi and lived in a rented apartment in the Chhattarpur Hill area. Then the police found Aftab.
During the interrogation, Aftab confessed to the crime and said that Shraddha was pressuring him for marriage and they often quarreled.
Police also recovered some bones from Aftab’s rented flat and officials said efforts are on to recover the rest of the body.
