Mehrauli's Macabre Tale: Aaftab Used Water Pump at Night to Avoid Suspicion as He Chopped Shraddha’s Body? Exclusive

The water pump at the flat at South Delhi’s Mehrauli, where Aaftab Poonawala, 28, is suspected to have killed his live-in partner and Mumbai resident Shraddha Walkar, 26, brutally on May 18, would be switched on at odd hours of the night, neighbours told CNN-News18.

The details of the case, which has shocked the entire nation, emerged on Saturday, with Poonawala’s arrest. Police said he sawed her body into 35 pieces, kept them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence and then dumped them across the city over several days. The Delhi Police on Tuesday took accused Poonawala to the forest area of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur and spent nearly three hours to locate specific spots where he had allegedly dumped the body parts.

According to police, Poonawala is “sharp-minded" and was more comfortable answering them in English, although he knew Hindi.

It is suspected that Poonawala used to switch on the water pump to wash away the bloodstains as he chopped Walkar’s body and did it at night to avoid suspicion.

‘DID NOT INTERACT MUCH’

Poonawala did not interact much with people, used to come home in the evening and regularly ordered food from online food delivery apps, neighbours told News18.

The morning after he allegedly strangled Walkar, Poonawala went to the nearest market where he first bought a refrigerator. The probe shows that he made the payment through a credit card for Rs 23,500. He then went to a cutlery shop to buy a knife and garbage bags.

The shopkeeker alleged that while taking the delivery, he got a cut on his arm. Poonawala then went to a local clinic to get himself stitched. The doctor who treated him, Anil, recalled Poonawala as an “arrogant young man". “There was no remorse on his face… he was continuously speaking in English," the doctor recalled.

He told the doctor that he shifted from Mumbai to Delhi as the IT companies here paid better.

MET ON DATING APP

Poonawala and Walkar, from Vasai in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, are said to have met each other on an online dating app. Later, they started working for the same call centre in Mumbai and fell in love.

“He worked in in the same call centre. They were working there since 2019. On opposition from the woman’s family, the couple started living in Naigaon and then shifted to Delhi," Vasai police inspector Sampat Patil said.

But their families objected to the relationship as they belonged to different faiths, prompting the couple to move out of the financial capital.

They went to Himachal Pradesh and later arrived in Delhi. They stayed at a hotel in Paharganj for a day and later moved to a hostel in Saidulajab in south Delhi.

MOVED TO CHATTARPUR ON MAY 15, KILLED ON MAY 18

On May 15, they moved to the house in Chhattarpur Pahadi. On the 18th of that month, an argument broke out between them and Poonawala tried to shut her mouth with his hand.

He later allegedly strangulated her, police said. On May 20, he sawed her body into 35 pieces and dumped them in the fridge.

USED TRAINING as CHEF TO STORE BODY PARTS

Poonawala had studied hotel management and worked as a chef a few years ago. He had undergone a two-week training on how to cut meat, which he used while chopping Walkar’s body. “He cut her body for two days," an official said.

Police said 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 freshener to suppress the foul smell.

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 around 2 am and return a couple of hours later. He repeated this for around 20 days," the official said.

With PTI Inputs

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