DELHI MURDER: ACCUSED TAKEN TO SPOT WHERE BODY PARTS WERE DUMPED
Delhi police on Tuesday took Aaftab Amin Poonawala, the 28-year-old accused of killing his live-in partner, to the forest area of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur and spent nearly three hours to locate specific places where he had allegedly dumped her body parts.
Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar in May and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days.
After the scene recreation exercise on Tuesday, the accused was brought back to the police station.
According to police officials, he will also be taken to some other places in the city besides the Chhatarpur jungle area as part of their probe into the murder.
“The crime scene was recreated to understand and ascertain the sequence of events that led to the heinous crime and how he managed to locate the spots where different pieces could be dumped without inviting public glare,” a senior police official said.
The police is also likely to approach authorities at online dating app Bumble through which both the accused and victim met.
28-YEAR-OLD AAFTAB AMIN POONAWALA IS ACCUSED OF KILLING HIS LIVE-IN PARTNER, SAWING HER BODY INTO 35 PIECES AND DUMPING THEM
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Tuesday took the 28-year-old accused of killing his live-in partner to the jungle areas of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur where he had allegedly dumped her body parts. A senior police official said the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala will be taken to some other places in the city besides the Chhatarpur jungle area as part of their probe into the murder. As Poonawala, his face covered with a white cloth, was taken to the wooded area, surrounded by police personnel, camera crews and journalists jostled with each other.
The ire over the gruesome killing seemed to spill over with a woman at the spot asking Poonawala if he was ashamed of his actions. Poonawala had told the police during investigation that he
killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar after a quarrel over marriage and the idea of chopping her body into 35 pieces was inspired by “Dexter”, an American crime
TV series.
He bought a fridge to preserve the body parts and used to step out past midnight to dispose them of. The accused meticulously planned which ones to dispose of first depending upon which part starts decomposing at the earliest, the police said.
According to police officials, 13 body parts were found after the accused pinpointed the areas where he had thrown them, but only after their forensic examination, it can be confirmed if they belong to the victim. They are yet to find the murder weapon.
Poonawala and Walkar had met each other through an online dating application. Later, they started working for the same call centre in Mumbai and fell in love. But their families objected to the relationship as they belong to different faiths, prompting the couple to move to Mehrauli earlier this year, the officials said.
“Around mid-May, the couple had an argument over marriage, which escalated and Poonawala killed her,” Ankit Chauhan, Additional
DCP-I, South district, had said. “The accused then cut her body into over 35 pieces. He bought a 300-litre fridge to preserve the body parts and stocked up on incense sticks and room fresheners. He disposed of the pieces in different parts of the city over several days. He used to step out past midnight to dump the severed body parts,” he added.
Chauhan said the woman was not on talking terms with her family due to their differences over her relationship with Poonawala.
The complaint by the victim’s father alleged that Poonawala used to beat Walkar on several occasions and that she had informed her family about it earlier. “The woman’s father called the accused up but was told that the couple had parted ways sometime back. Unable to contact his daughter, the man then filed a missing complaint,” Chauhan said.