Hyderabad: The country on Monday woke up to the news of a gruesome murder in Delhi. A 28-year-old-man, now identified as Aftab Amin Poonawala, killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, chopped her body into pieces, and later scattered them across Mehrauli forest over 18 days.
The accused managed to keep the crime under wraps for six months. The details of gruesome manslaughter surfaced after he was arrested by the Delhi police. He bought a fridge to stuff the pieces of his live-in partner and used incense sticks to keep the foul smell away.
Who is Aftab Amin Poonawala? What drove him to take these extreme steps? Here’s all you need to know about this hideous crime.
Who is Aftab Amin Poonawala?
Aftab originally hails from Mumbai’s Vasai area and studied at St Francis High School and completed his graduation from LS Raheja College. An ardent foodie and food photographer, he has an Instagram handle (@hungrychokro_escapades) in which he reviews restaurants and eateries. He is quite popular on social media with over 28,000 followers to date.
Besides food blogging, according to his social media handles, he was into bodybuilding, is an animal lover, and an ardent football enthusiast. He is also a trained chef.
How did Aftab meet Shraddha?
Aftab met Shraddha through a dating app back in 2019. The victim worked at a call centre and was a resident of Mumbai’s Vasai. She used to stay with her mother, who passed away in 2020, and her younger brother.
In October 2019, she left her home and moved in with Aftab. The two are said to have stayed together in Naigaon and then Vasai for some time. In May, the couple then moved into an apartment in Delhi’s Chattarpur Pahari area and took up jobs at a call centre. However, the love eventually started turning toxic.
Toxic relationship
According to reports, Shraddha began to pressure Aftab for marriage. The man was reportedly reluctant to tie the knot and this led to issues in the relationship. It is also reported that she had told a close friend in May that they had “almost broken up” and she was finding a new place for herself in Delhi.
In an interview with ‘The Indian Express’, her friend said, “They were in a live-in relationship since 2019 but it was a very turbulent one, and he assaulted her many times. Finally, they decided to give it a last shot and went to Himachal Pradesh this year for a trip. Even there, they were having fights and Shraddha had told us she had decided to break up and their relationship was nearing an end. After the Himachal Pradesh trip, they decided to spend some time in Delhi and I think she was waiting for May 16, which was their anniversary.”
Two days after the anniversary, the couple reportedly argued once again. It quickly turned physical with Aftab choking her to death. To evade arrest, he chopped her body into 36 pieces and stored them in a fridge that he bought after killing her. Over the next 18 days, he then would sneak out at 2 in the night every day to dispose of Shraddha’s body one piece at a time in the Mehrauli forest area.
Unraveling gruesome murder
Shraddha’s father Vikas Madan Walkar filed a missing person’s report at Manikpur police station in Vasai. It was this complaint that led the police to investigate. His father was alerted by one of her friends after Shraddha stopped contacting them for two months.
Aftab’s revelations
After the Delhi Police arrested Aftab on 902914Monday, the food blogger revealed that he had been inspired by the American crime show ‘Dexter’ to murder and store her body.
He even looked for the method of blood cleaning and read about human anatomy.
News agency ANI, citing sources, reported that Aftab used to sleep every day in the same room where he had chopped the body after killing Shraddha. He used to see the face after keeping it in the fridge. Aftab cleaned the fridge after disposing of the body parts.
The cops, during their preliminary investigations, have also found some bones from Aftab’s house, which will be sent for further examinations. The police have also begun combing the Mehrauli forest to recover the body parts dumped there.