Aaftab used a saw to chop Shraddha’s body, shows autopsy report

HT had on November 18 reported that police found a saw from Poonawala’s house, and said that it could have been one of the weapons used to chop Walkar’s body.

Aaftab Poonawala used a saw to chop the body of his girlfriend Sharddha Walkar, senior officials aware of the matter said citing the autopsy report.

Aaftab Poonawala had taken police teams to different places around Qutub Minar and Chhattarpur where the decomposed bones were found. (HT Photo)

Though no senior police officer authorised to issue press statements commented on the development, one officer said the report has confirmed that some of the bones recovered from different places in Delhi and Gurugram could have been cut by a saw. The finding will further help the police in fixing key pieces of information in Walkar’s gruesome murder, and build a watertight case against Poonawala, who was arrested on November 12.

HT had on November 18 reported that police found a saw from Poonawala’s house, and said that it could have been one of the weapons used to chop Walkar’s body. Police have maintained that apart from the saw, Walkar used kitchen knives and other tools in his house to chop his girlfriend’s body parts, before storing them in the refrigerator and disposing of them piece-by-piece in different parts of south Delhi and Gurugram between May 19 and mid-August, 2022. Police had seized the saw as a case property.

Last month, after forensic experts confirmed that the DNA sample retrieved from the bones recovered in the wooded area of south Delhi matched the DNA taken from Walkar’s father and her brother, police sent the bones for an autopsy to AIIMS.

After his arrest on November 12, Poonawala had taken police teams to different places around Qutub Minar and Chhattarpur where the decomposed bones were found.

Despite repeated calls and text messages, DCP (south) Chandan Choudhary and Special Commissioner of Police Sagar Preet Hooda did not comment on the findings.

Poonawala, who worked at a call centre in Gurugram, is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Poonawala and Walkar, originally from Vasai near Mumbai, were in a relationship and moved to Delhi in May 2022. Walkar was estranged from her family who opposed her relationship with Poonawala. Her murder came to light when a friend informed Walkar’s father, Vikas Madan Walkar that he had not heard from Walkar for nearly two months. Unable to contact Walkar, he informed Mumbai Police in October. The Mumbai police’s probe led police to the couple’s rented room in south Delhi Chhattarpur Pahadi. Delhi police too joined in the probe.

The grisly crime was unearthed on November 12 last year after Poonawala ostensibly told the police that he murdered Walkar in their Chhattarpur flat six months ago, chopped her body into at least 35 pieces for over two days, stored them in a refrigerator for about three months, and dumped the body parts piece by piece. It was during a fight on the evening of May 18, 2022, that Poonawala strangled her and then chopped her body into 35 pieces inside the house.