Delhi murder: Footage shows one man walking around from 4 am to 7 am, say police

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 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.

CCTV footage shows Aftab Poonawalla carrying a bag on a street outside his house in Delhi during the wee hours. (ANI)

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

To be sure, it was not immediately 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 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. But the investigating team has to be doubly sure about his presence in the video clips through forensics,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named.

The police uncovered the footage from a camera installed near the couple’s house while mapping CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity, on the purported route he used to take when dumping the victim’s body parts and between his home and workplace (in Gurugram).

“Between 4am and 7am on October 18, the person was captured on the CCTV camera making three or four trips with the bag, which is why the investigating team became interested in inquiring into the video footage,” said a second officer involved in the investigation who also asked not to be named.

“Investigators are now trying to retrieve footage from the same period from other CCTV cameras in the area to trace the person’s movements and ascertain if he walked towards the nearby forested area to dump anything inside the backpack or box,” the second officer said.

The Vasai police in Maharashtra recorded Poonawala’s verbal statement on October 26 and a written statement on November 3, said Delhi Police officers aware of the matter, which means he is unlikely to have been in the Capital on those days.

He was initially questioned by the Vasai police after Walkar’s father, who lives in the Maharashtra city, filed a missing persons complaint with the local police, reporting that she had been off the radar since June.

Delhi Police officers said the city’s local police questioned Poonawala over the telephone before he was called to Vasai for questioning. There is a possibility he kept some body parts, panicked and dumped the body parts before travelling to Vasai, they said.