Aaftab initially wanted to burn face, not hack body, say police

Poonawala allegedly murdered Walkar on May 18 and chopped her body into at least 35 pieces for over two days, stored them in a refrigerator for nearly three months and dumped them in places near Chhattarpur and Qutub Minar in south Delhi.

Aaftab Amin Poonawala, 28, had initially planned to dispose of the body of his live-in partner, Shraddha Vikas Walkar, 27, by just burning her face with a blowtorch, investigators associated with the case said on Wednesday quoting the suspect’s revelations during his questioning.

New Delhi: Police personnel at Mehrauli forest area amid investigation in the murder case of Shraddha Walkar. (PTI)

Poonawala allegedly murdered Walkar on May 18 and chopped her body into at least 35 pieces for over two days, stored them in a refrigerator for nearly three months and dumped them in places near Chhattarpur and Qutub Minar in south Delhi. Poonawala was arrested last Saturday, and the police have said that he has confessed to murdering Walkar.

“He said the original plan was not to chop the body. It isn’t clear what prompted him to chop his partner’s body and dispose it piece by piece over three months. He has not given any clear information about the weapon used to cut the body. He also claimed that he used a blowtorch claims it was a blowtorch. He has also mentioned that he used also used a lighter. Given his background in hotel management and internship in hotel kitchen, it is possible the he may have used a blowtorch. As of now there is no evidence to corroborate his statements,” said one officer who is privy to the interrogation details.

While police said that they have collected the blood samples of Walkar’s father for DNA profiling, the experts from FSL said on Wednesday said that they were yet to receive any exhibits.

According to officers aware of Poonawala’s interrogation, he told the police that he murdered Walkar at around 8-9 pm on May 18 after a fight over expenses. One investigator said differences had cropped up between the couple since Shraddha suspected Poonawala of having an affair with another woman. This is why they decided to take a break, the officers said.

According to the police, the couple went to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, before coming to Delhi in May.

“On the day of the murder the couple had fought over expenses in bringing their belongings from Maharashtra to Delhi. Initially, Poonawala had said that differences had emerged because Shraddha suspected him of having an affair,” one police officer, privy to the probe details said.

So far, the police have recovered 13 pieces of bones but they are yet to be linked to the victim through DNA analysis. The police are also yet to recover the weapon used by Poonawala to chop Shraddha’s body. In the absence of any clinching evidence and in order to piece together the sequence of events, the police on Wednesday said that they will seek court’s permission to conduct a narco analysis test on the suspect.

Though the findings of a narco analysis are not admissible in court as evidence, officers said that interrogation during the test may provide them some fresh leads for investigation since the suspect has been giving contradictory details about the case.

Poonawala will be produced in Saket Court on Thursday and police will seek further remand.

Meanwhile, the police on Wednesday widened the search for missing body parts in the wooded area around Chhattarpur and Qutub Minar. Officers visited the area with sniffer dogs on Wednesday and barricaded a large portion of the forested area to keep visitors away from the scene.

Officers, however, did not confirm if they have found more body parts or any other evidence after the search on Wednesday.

Photographs of surgical gloves lying on the flat’s floor were widely circulated on the social media, with some users claiming that they were used by Poonawala while disposing the body. Forensic laboratory officials, who had visited the flat on November 11, 13 and 14, said, “Our officers must have left the gloves there. If it was case evidence, it would have been collected, preserved and given to the police.”

Later in the evening, a police team also visited the flat which has been locked since Saturday (after Poonawala’s arrest).

Poonawala and Walkar, originally from Vasai near Mumbai, were in a relationship and had moved to Delhi in May 2022. Delhi Police have confirmed that Poonawala murdered Walkar because she was forcing him to get married. The two were in a live-in relationship since 2019 and had come to Delhi in mid-May after visiting different tourist places in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Estranged from her family, who opposed her relationship with Poonawala, Walkar was murdered on May 18 but the incident came to light only when a friend informed Walkar’s father that he had not heard from her for at least two months.

A month-long probe by Mumbai and Delhi Police led investigators to the flat in south Delhi where Poonawala had allegedly murdered Walkar six months ago.