The grisly murder case of 26-year-old Shraddha Walker continues to reveal gory details. According to the latest updates, Aaftab Amin Poonawala - Shraddha's live-in partner - has reportedly confessed to the Delhi Police that after chopping the body of Shraddha, he burnt her face to conceal her identity. He also confessed that he had searched on the internet for ways to dispose off a body after murder, Delhi Police sources were quoted by ANI.
In yet another loop in the Shraddha Walker murder case, the Southern District Police of Delhi has contacted their Eastern counterparts in a bid to match the DNA sample of chopped body parts including a human head which the latter had recovered earlier in June. According to the sources, the East Delhi Police had found a chopped head and hand in the Trilokpuri area of Pandav Nagar police station area of the national capital in June this year, which was nearly a month after Shraddha was murdered (on May 18). In the East Delhi case, the police were not able to ascertain whose body parts they were because of the tampered state of the recovered body parts. The body parts found in East Delhi were sent for a DNA test, and the forensic report will be coming soon. The bones found in Mehrauli forests have also been sent for a DNA test. The police will match the DNA report of all the pieces found at both these places and will try to ascertain if the found body parts were of Shraddha, the sources said. The Southern District Police has contacted the Eastern District Police in this regard.
Accused of butchering his live-in partner, the 28-year-old food blogger by profession is now being likened to notorious serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy who raped, mutilated, and murdered scores of women. An avid follower of crime shows, Poonawala allegedly killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walker after a quarrel over marriage and said the idea of chopping her body into 35 pieces was inspired by American crime TV series "Dexter ".
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Poonawala lived along with his younger brother Ahad, father Amin, and mother Munira Ben in Unique Park Housing Society in the Vasai suburb. Residents of the society recall that the brothers used to fight often but there was nothing more significant about his personality that would give an inkling about his diabolical side. A graduate from LS Raheja College in Mumbai, Poonawala shifted to Delhi earlier this year only after he met Walker. Poonawala, who has a page on Instagram by the name 'HungryChokro' which has 29.1k followers, met Walker through an online dating application.
Later, they started working for the same call centre in Mumbai and fell in love. But their families objected to the relationship as they belong to different faiths, prompting the couple to move to Mehrauli earlier this year. On 18th May, the couple had an argument over marriage, which escalated and Poonawala killed her. The next day, he purchased a saw and a 300-litre refrigerator. Poonawala had studied hotel management and was trained in handling sharp knives as he had undergone a two-week training on how to cut meat. He applied the know-how to chop Walker's body into 35 pieces. He then went on to cut her body for two days. Poonawala would pack the refrigerator's deep freezer with the pieces and put the remaining ones in the bottom tray. After some time, he would take the frozen pieces out to deep freeze those kept in the tray. He also used incense sticks and room fresheners to suppress the foul smell. Police said that he used to take out the chopped pieces, pack them in polythene bags and take them to the forest in a backpack. "He would go to the jungle at around 2 am and return a couple of hours later. He repeated this for around 20 days," an official said.
Police have described Poonawala as "sharp-minded" who is more comfortable answering them in English though he knows Hindi.
Staying active on Walker's social media account helped him conceal the murder. But it was only a matter of time before he ran out of luck and the police came knocking at his door.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
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