Man arrested for killing live-in partner

Delhi Police crack a macabre case of a love affair gone sour

Achildhood friend of Shraddha Walkar, who was killed by her boyfriend and hacked to pieces in New Delhi, had first alerted her family in Maharashtra’s Palghar of her “missing” status in September and that kick-started the investigation into the sensational murder, a top police official said here, yesterday.

Shraddha, 29, was murdered by her boyfriend partner, who then chopped her body into 35 pieces, stuffed them into a fridge and then scattered them across the national capital, New Delhi, over 18 days to avoid detection.

The Delhi Police have finally cracked what turned out to be an eight-month-old macabre case of a love affair gone sour; they have arrested the prime suspect, Aftab Poonawala.

Long-term relationship

According to Inspector Sampatrao Patil, of Manikpur Police Station in Vasai town, the woman was in a relationship with the accused since 2019.

They had reportedly met through a friendship app.

Apparently Shraddha’s family objected to her relationship with Poonawala, and this resulted in her walking out of her house and living with him in the Naigaon suburban area.

Everything seemed to be normal and though estranged for a while. When her mother passed away, Shraddha had stayed over at the family home for a fortnight, then she returned to Poonawala’s house.

Suspicions were only aroused in September this year, when Laxman Nadar, Shraddha’s childhood friend, told her brother that she was incommunicado for a couple of months.

Marriage demand

Upon learning of this, her father, Vikas Walkar, approached the Manikpur Police Station.

Police who registered suo motu a ‘missing’ complaint, set up a special team and called Poonawala to the police station where he admitted that their relationship had gone sour some months ago after she demanded that they get married. Enraged, he confessed, he killed her.