Footage shows Aaftab walking around from 4am to 7am: Cops

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police have retrieved CCTV camera footage that shows a man, purportedly Aaftab Amin Poonawala — who has been arrested for killing his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar and dismembering her body — walking down a lane in south Delhi’s Chhattarpur Pahadi at 4am on October 18, with a bag on his back and a box under his arm, prompting investigators to interrogate the suspect and ask if he was carrying any of her remains when the video was captured, officers aware of the matter said on Saturday.

Investigators who have seen the hours-long footage said the man is seen three or four times between 4am and 7am, piquing their interest and offering a fresh angle in their probe so far.

Poonawala has reportedly told the police that he strangled Walkar in their rented Chhattarpur Pahadi flat on May 18 this year, chopped up her body into at least 35 pieces over the next two days, stored them in a fridge and then disposed of those parts across Chhattarpur and Mehrauli between mid-May and August.

For officers, the October 18 video could act as a vital lead in a case that has offered sparingly little in the way of conclusive evidence, forcing the police to so far rely on Poonawala’s statements and testimonies of people who knew the two.

It may also help police establish if Poonawala has misled the police about the timeline of the disposal.

The police have so far recovered bones (it is unclear if they are human), a refrigerator in which he allegedly stored the body parts and a saw from his flat.

He was first questioned over the telephone by local police in Chhattarpur in October, said officers, adding that Poonawala may not have disposed of all the body parts by August and that the call may have scared him into getting rid of the remains that month.

To be sure, it was not immediately

The entire case is based on Poonawala’s statements, but police, referring to his ‘deceptive nature’, are still verifying whether he is telling the truth. Within hours of his arrest on November 12, police approached a court, seeking to conduct a narco analysis on him.

Police have recovered some decomposed bone fragments from a Gurugram forest and a forested area near Chhattarpur. At this stage, it is unclear whether the samples are human, and they have been sent to the forensic science laboratory, which will determine if they belong to Walkar.

Poonawala claims he used a hacksaw to dismember the body, and police have recovered a saw from his flat. However, police are yet to confirm whether this is the weapon he used. Also, the suspect told police he used more than one weapon. The police are taking him to places where he claims he bought the hacksaw.

Police said Poonawala allegedly accessed Walkar’s social media accounts on her mobile phone to make people believe she was using it, and the suspect has claimed he dumped the phone while travelling to Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Police are still verifying this.

clear if Poonawala confirmed to the police that he appears in the video or revealed what he was carrying in the bag or box.

The video, a clip of which did the rounds on social media on Saturday, will be sent for forensic checks to ensure it has not been tampered with, said senior Delhi Police officers involved in the

Police said the couple, who were living together since 2019, allegedly had a troubled relationship. Poonawala has claimed that on May 18, the two fought over his decision to stay in Mumbai and not live in Delhi. However, he has previously claimed that they argued over expenses, and has also claimed that Walkar hurled abuses at him over suspicions that he was having an affair. Several people have also claimed on social media that Poonawala was physically abusive towards, Walkar. However, police are verifying this and have gone to Mumbai to record their statements.

investigation of the macabre killing that has shocked the Capital.

“If established that the person in the footage is Poonawala and that he carried body parts or a weapon involved in the offence, it will be confirmed that he kept the human remains in the refrigerator for five months and not three, as he claimed earlier,” said a police officer involved in the investigation who asked not to be named.

“The man [in the footage] appears to be Poonawala,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named.

“But the investigating team has to be doubly sure about his presence in the video clips through forensics,” he added.