Police map CCTV cams near suspect’s flat

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police have begun mapping all close circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed near the Chhattarpur Pahadi flat in which Aaftab Amin Poonawala, 28, allegedly murdered his girlfriend Shraddha Vikas Walkar on May 18, officers associated with the probe said on Wednesday.

The police are yet to find the body, or the weapon with which the suspect hacked Walkar’s corpse into 35 pieces and dumped them in forested areas in Chhattarpur and Mehrauli.

Police officers said that they are gathering footage from cameras installed near the flat rented by the couple three days before Walkar was allegedly murdered.

“There is a log gap between the time of the murder and the suspect’s arrest during which he continued to live in the same flat.

We are yet to find any witnesses who may have noticed him going out of the flat in the early hours to dump the body pieces between May and August. The footage will help us track his movements,” an officer associated with the probe said, asking to remain anonymous.

“The footage will also help us identify who all visited him during this period, and those persons may provide some leads,” the officer added.

The police are yet to find any clinching evidence in the grisly murder case. The police have found 13 pieces of bones and the refrigerator in which they were stored. However, the police are yet to establish through DNA analysis if the body parts were

Walkar’s or not. The weapon that was allegedly used by Poonawala to hack the body has also not been found yet. A second officer who is also part of the investigating team said that so far they have been getting footage for a month, since most users do not stash older footage.

“Unfortunately, nobody in the locality has footage from the last six months. But, we are gathering whatever we can. We have also asked banks and other business establishments in the area to share their CCTV footage since they usually save footage for longer periods,” said the second officer who also asked not be named.

Poonawala and Walkar met on an online dating application in 2019. Later, they started working at a call centre in Mumbai’s Malad area. Since their families were opposed to their relationship, the couple began living together in Mumbai, and moved to Delhi in May this year.