Delhi man kills partner, chops her into pieces
NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old man in New Delhi allegedly killed his live-in partner, chopped her body into pieces, stuffed them into a refrigerator and dumped them in different parts of the city over several weeks, a senior police officer said on Monday.
The murder allegedly took place six months ago, with the details emerging only recently after the man was arrested following a missing persons complaint filed by the father of the 26-year-old woman, Shraddha Walkar.
A senior police officer said they questioned the man, identified as Aftab Poonawalla, about
POLICE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO CORROBORATE THE MAN’S STATEMENT, AS NEITHER THE ALLEGED BODY PARTS HAVE BEEN TRACED NOR THE MURDER WEAPON
his live-in partner and he allegedly confessed to the murder and told them that he cut her body into 35 pieces in May.
Police, however, have not been able to corroborate the man’s statement, as neither the
alleged chopped body parts have been traced nor the murder weapon.
To be sure, a confession or disclosure statement of any person made before a police officer is not admissible as evidence before a court unless it is backed by other evidence. Only a confession before a judge is admissible as evidence against an accused.
According to preliminary investigations, the woman worked at a call centre in Mumbai where she came in contact with the accused.
Her parents did not approve of their relationship. At some point, they shifted out to Delhi and started living in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area.
Citing Poonawalla’s interrogation, police said the couple had a heated argument on May 18 which turned violent. The accused allegedly smothered Shraddha.
Police said the man allegedly purchased a 300-litre refrigerator to store the body parts as he slowly got rid of them. For the next two weeks or so, he, an official said, would leave home every night and dump some of the pieces at one place or the other.
“Around mid-May, the couple had an argument over marriage, which escalated and Poonawala killed her,” Ankit Chauhan, additional DCP-I, South district, said, citing the purported confession.
“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 freshners. He disposed 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.
Police said the woman’s family filed a complaint with the Mehrauli police after noticing that she hadn’t been uploading photographs on her social media accounts. The officer said they brought in her live-in partner for questioning and found gaps in his explanation for her absence.
The complaint alleged that Poonawala used to beat up Walkar on occasions and that she had informed her family about it earlier, news agency PTI reported.
“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.
Poonawala has been remanded to a five-day custody and further investigation is underway, the police said.
Police added they are trying to locate some of the body parts and collect other forensic evidence to establish the sequence of events.