Police find audio of Aaftab Poonawala ‘threatening’ Shraddha Walkar

The officers added that the clip could prove helpful in establishing the nature of relationship between Poonawala and Walkar, and may help establish the motive for the murder.

The Delhi Police on Monday took Aaftab Poonawala to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to record a sample of his voice to match it with an audio clip retrieved from his phone in which he could be allegedly heard arguing and threatening his girl friend Shraddha Walkar, officers aware of the investigation said.

Aaftab Poonawala allegedly murdered Shraddha Walkar in May at a rented flat in south Delhi’s Chhattarpur Pahadi. He chopped her body and kept it in a refrigerator and dumped the pieces over at least two months in Mehrauli and Gurugram. (HT Archive)

The officers added that the clip could prove helpful in establishing the nature of relationship between Poonawala and Walkar, and may help establish the motive for the murder.

Poonawala allegedly murdered Walkar in May at a rented flat in south Delhi’s Chhattarpur Pahadi. He chopped her body and kept it in a refrigerator and dumped the pieces over at least two months in Mehrauli and Gurugram. Poonawala was arrested in November, following an investigation into a missing person’s complaint registered by Walkar’s father in Mumbai in October.

“We found an audio clip during examination of his phone in which Poonawala and Walkar can be heard fighting and arguing. He can also be heard threatening her as well,” an investigating officer said. However, he did not divulge details of the time and location of the conversation.

Last week, a local court had allowed the Delhi Police to collect the voice samples of Aaftab. The police’s request was opposed by the accused and his lawyer but the court dismissed the objections.

Officers associated with the probe also said that the Walkar’s relatives and friends in Mumbai had also shared a video clip in which Poonawala can be seen being “counselled” about the alleged abusive relationship the duo shared. However, there’s no clarity on the time when the video was recorded.

“The voice sample and the audio clip will be sent for forensic analysis. The outcome, if in our favour, will only show in court that the voice in the recovered clip is in fact of the accused,” the officer said.

A second investigator explained that, the evidence value of the forensic findings of the clip, will only be “persuasive”. “For instance, if a person threatens another person with death and the second person is subsequently killed, it doesn’t necessarily prove that the first person is the murderer. In this case, however, Poonawala can be heard threatening her and eventually he was arrested for the murder as well. Therefore, this clip will have persuasive value in court as it provides possible motive, context and background,” the officer said.

So far, the police have established that of the 40-odd bones recovered from the forests of Mehrauli and Gurugram, DNA extracted from at least eight matched with the DNA of Walkar’s father. Also traces of blood samples found from the Chhatarpur flat belonged to Walkar, a DNA analysis has established. The DNA reports are crucial since there were no eyewitnesses, the weapons found at the crime scene are yet to be linked with the crime. It is Poonawala’s words during custodial interrogation that the police have relied on to piece the case together, but such disclosures are not admissible as evidence in court unless made as a confession in front of a magistrate.

Police had recently collected the narco analysis report of Poonawala’s from Forensic Science Laboratory in Rohini and earlier, the polygraph test report. But, findings of these cases are not admissible in court.

The couple, originally from Maharashtra had shifted to Delhi in the second week of May. Within days, Poonawala allegedly murdered Walkar on May 18 and disposed her body parts in different parts for nearly three months. Estranged from her family, who opposed her relationship with Poonawala, her family suspected foul play only after Walkar’s friend informed her father that had not heard from her in many months. Her father had then informed the Mumbai police in October. A month -long probe by Mumbai police led them to the south Delhi flat, where Poonawala had murdered her, chopped the body, and then cleaned the flat to remove evidence of the murder. He was arrested on November 12.