Crucial clues that went unnoticed
Even as investigators try and tie up the several loose threads surrounding the murder of Shraddha Walkar, allegedly by her partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala, several red flags appear to have gone unnoticed in the months leading to the crime
TENSION, VIOLENCE
Walkar reportedly told her friends that Poonawala assaulted her, and that they often had intense fights. According to one of her friends, Lakshman Nadar, Walkar sent a message in 2020 saying Poonawala would kill her if they did not get her out of their house in Mumbai. Yet, none of her friends checked on her after she moved to Delhi in May.
WEAPON, FRIDGE PURCHASED
A day after allegedly killing Walkar in their flat, Poonawala bought a heavy, sharp weapon and refrigerator from nearby stores. However, none of the shopkeepers noticed anything unusual about his behaviour.
LONE FRIEND IN DELHI
In the second week of May, Poonawala and Walkar lived in their friend Badri’s flat in Chhattarpur Pahadi for a few days. He later helped them rent a house near his flat, where they shifted on May 15. Walkar was allegedly killed three days later. Shraddha’s sudden disappearance did not register as curious to Badri, even if Poonawala ostensibly told him that she had left after a fight.
NO ACTIVITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For someone who was active on social media, Shraddha’s last post on Instagram was on May 11 (a week before she was killed). Yet, none of her friends or family members suspected anything was amiss until Nadar alerted her father in mid-September that he had not seen any post activity for her since May 31 (Poonawala allegedly used her phone to reply to Nadar’s messages on that day).
NEIGHBOURS CLUELESS
Poonawala continued to live in the flat despite allegedly killing Shraddha, chopping her body into 35 pieces, and storing the parts in the house. Yet, none of their neighbours seem to have noticed her disappearance till November, or anything odd in Poonawala’s behaviour, when the police quizzed him about the missing woman.
DOCTOR WHO TREATED POONAWALA
A doctor who runs a clinic in Chhattarpur has claimed that, sometime in May, Poonawala visited his clinic to treat a wound -- around the same time he allegedly killed Walkar. The doctor now says that Poonawala was “aggressive, bold and restless”, but his behaviour did not raise any red flags at the time.
DUMPED BODY PARTS WITHOUT GETTING NOTICED
It took nearly three months for Poonawala to dispose of the 35 body parts. However, the police are still to find a person who spotted him going out after midnight -- he stepped out with a backpack regularly for nearly three months to dispose of the body parts in the woods in the vicinity, according to his confession