Suspect’s water bill cover-up clue: Cops
NEW DELHI: An outstanding water bill has emerged as a key lead in the grisly Chhattarpur murder case, with police saying on Wednesday that it could help corroborate prime accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala’s statement that he kept the water running while hacking his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar’s body and to clean bloodstains after the act, marking a new turn in a horrific crime that has shocked the country.
The water bill of ₹300 — described as unusual for a single tenant by the caretaker of Poonawala’s first-floor flat in a complex where most residents keep within Delhi government’s free water consumption limit — is a crucial part of the puzzle because it may help link circumstantial evidence amid confessional statements that are inadmissible unless backed by corroborative proof.
Rajendra Kumar — the caretaker of Poonawala’s first-floor flat that the couple rented on May 15, three days before he allegedly killed his 27-year-old partner — said the 28-year-old man’s water bill remained unpaid. Kumar said the bill was unusual because other tenants who were already living on the ground and second floor of the three-storey building never paid water bills before, and the total consumption of the household was always below the 20,000 litre limit for free water, as mandated by the Delhi government. It is unclear whether the whole building had a single connection or individual water meters for each of the three flats. The bill amounting to ₹300 means that an 18,000 litres of water was used.
We found out that there was a pending bill of ₹300 against water charges that Poonawala had to pay. After going through media reports that Poonawala chopped his girlfriend’s body in the bathroom, we suspect he may have used excess water all these months to clean the blood,” said Kumar.
A police officer associated with the probe said on condition of anonymity that investigators were aware of the anomaly, and were looking into the possibility that Poonawala used excess water to clean his flat after the crime.
“Since Poonawala disclosed that he kept the water tap in bathroom on while hacking Walkar’s body, we will probe this excess water use angle and also examine the water bills cycle to ascertain of in which months the water consumption of the flat was high,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.
The gruesome murder was unearthed on Monday.
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.