What he said, what they saw: How a crime went unnoticed
SHRADDHA WALKAR’S MURDER
NEW DELHI: The caretaker of the building where the two lived, a local surgeon, the owners of a kitchenware store and an electronics store, a common friend of the couple, and a friend of Shraddha Walkar who alerted her father about her social media silence — with the police still searching for evidence to pin the 27-year-old woman’s murder on her boyfriend partner Aaftab Poonawala, investigators are building their case around the testimonies of these six people, who interacted with him in the days before, or after, the alleged killing.
Of them, Walkar’s friend, Lakshman Nadar, lives in Mumbai, while the rest stay in Chhattarpur in south Delhi.
At least three of the five claimed to have seen and met Poonawala in May, around the time he allegedly killed Walkar, chopped her body into pieces, and dumped the parts in woods around Mehrauli and Qutub Minar.
After killing Walkar on May 18, said the police, Poonawala spent all night planning the disposal of the body. On May 19, he bought a “heavy, sharp weapon” from a nearby kitchenware store near the main Chhattarpur market.
On Wednesday, HT met four of these five who live in Chhattarpur and spoke to them about Poonawala — his personality, behaviour and actions.
The caretaker
The caretaker, Rajendra Kumar, and the doctor, Dr Anil Kumar Singh, remember Poonawala as “aggressive and hyper”, but with “controlled emotions”.
Kumar said he met Poonawala once, when he visited the flat one morning to collect rent payments from tenants on the second floor.
“I was in a hurry and pressed the doorbell of his flat on the first floor. Poonawala stormed out of his flat and aggressively asked why I disturbed him. I tried to explain, but he responded rudely again. I did not respond to this behaviour. It was the only time I saw him,” said Kumar.
According to him, Poonawala and Walkar secured the rented flat through a local property agent, whom they met after seeing his contact number on a pamphlet pasted outside the building.
The flat, he said, was rented out for ₹9,000 a month, with a month’s security deposit.
“We followed the mandated procedure, took photocopies of their IDS and got a rent agreement prepared. The woman was registered as the primary tenant and Poonawala the second,” Kumar added.
Kumar also said it was unusual that Poonawala received a water bill, even as others in the locality didn’t. He now feels, given what he has read in the media over the past few days, that Poonawala may have been using the extra water to wash the blood from the body parts and mask the sound of the cutting.
Owner of the kitchenware store
Sudeep Sachdeva, the owner of the store, Home and Kitchen, next to Apex Hospital, said the police brought Poonawala to his shop during their investigation.
“Poonawala told the police that my father was at the shop when he bought the item. But my father does not recall seeing him. The police asked us if we sold hacksaws, and we told them we only sell kitchen knives and not even cleavers,” he said.
He needed to store the body parts and so, on May 19, he went to Tilak Electronics, metres away from the kitchenware store, to
buy a fridge.
WITH THE POLICE YET TO FIND ANY CLUES THAT CAN CONCLUSIVELY PIN THE KILLING ON AAFTAB POONAWALA, THEY ARE NOW RELYING ON STATEMENTS BY PEOPLE WHO MET THE SUSPECT
Owner of the electronics store
Tilak Raj, owner of Tilak Electronics, said Poonawala bought “the largest refrigerator” available there, a 260-litre model, and paid for it using a credit card.
“He walked in, looked at a few refrigerators and selected the largest one. He left with the fridge after making the payment. He may have taken a rickshaw to carry it home. I have already given my statement to the police and gave them whatever documentary evidence I had,” added Raj.
Poonawala ostensibly told the police that he injured himself with the sharp weapon. So, he made his way back to Apex Hospital, again on May 19, and visited a doctor at the private facility.
The doctor
Dr Singh backed up Kumar’s recollection of Poonawala as a “rude and aggressive” person. He said that he met Poonawala on May 19 (a day after Walkar’s alleged murder), at Apex Hospital in Chhattarpur. He needed to get a gash on his right forearm treated.
“When I asked him how he suffered the cut, he responded in English and said the knife slipped from his hand while he was cutting fruits. Unconvinced, I asked the question over and over, and he got annoyed and responded aggressively. He looked me straight in the eye as he talked, and did not appear to be in any pain as I stitched his wound,” said Dr Singh, adding that Poonawala told him he was from Mumbai and was not comfortable speaking Hindi.
The surgeon’s statement, said the police, will help them corroborate his claims.
According to the surgeon, he identified Poonawala immediately when the police personnel brought him to the hospital on Sunday. “I also told them about seeing a tattoo on the forearm where he had suffered the cut. They asked me for CCTV footage and documentary evidence, and I gave them whatever we had at the hospital,” he added.