Aaftab Amin Poonawala, who allegedly killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar at their rented Delhi flat on May 18 last year and subsequently cut her body into pieces, gave blood-curdling details on her final moments and the motive during interrogation by the Delhi police.
๐๐ถ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐น๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐: ๐ฃ๐ผ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ
Poonawala claimed he decided to kill her, and get rid of her, after a fight over issues arising out of their lack of money and resources to fulfil daily needs. Alleging constant fights and verbal abuses by Walkar, he said he strangled her with both hands and continued to press her neck till she died. This is part of the Delhi policeโs recent case charge sheet submitted to a court, which the Free Press Journal accessed.
Poonawala told the police that he and Walkar left their Palghar rented flat on March 28-29, 2022 to proceed on a back-packing trip for over a month. They visited a string of hill stations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, apart from Chandigarh, in the hope that it โwill improveโ their relations. The couple had been allegedly quarrelling due to his friendships with other girls who he had met on a dating app, the fact that he was โpossessiveโ about her and would even beat her up.
A month later, on May 5, 2022, they had concluded their trip and returned to the Chattarpur Pahari S8south Delhi) flat of a common male friend, who they had befriended during the trip. Over a week later, however, the friend had asked the couple to leave his house as he was fed up with their constant fights, during which they had also โbroken upโ.
๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ณ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐น๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ต๐ถ
After staying out for two days at another place, the two had allegedly decided to rent a flat of their own in the same area. On May 16, they shifted to a first floor flat on Futa Road but the fights did not cease.
Poonawala told the police that since both were jobless and had spent most of their savings during the trip, they allegedly fought regularly over mundane issues. At around 6.30pm on the fateful day (May 18), Walkar allegedly asked him to return to their rented Vasai flat to bring back their household articles, according to the charge sheet.
Walkar even booked tickets for his journey to Vasai, Poonawala claimed. But he refused to leave, excusing himself over ill-health, which enraged her, he claimed. She pointed out that all they had at the flat were two bags with no eatables. She allegedly said that they had to survive on food brought from outside, which was not good for their health, and insisted that he must go to Vasai.
๐๐๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ผ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ณ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต ๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐: ๐๐ฎ๐ณ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ
Poonawala claimed that he countered her fury by asking her to foot half of their common expenses, which angered her further and she began abusing him. This was the moment, he said, he decided to kill her.
He flung her on the roomโs floor, pinned her down to sit across her chest. He then proceeded to strangle her with both his hands and kept her neck pressed till he was sure that she was dead, he told the police. Later, he took her body to the bathroom to hide.
๐ฃ๐ผ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐ ๐ต๐ผ๐ ๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณf ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐
He revealed that he left the flat at around 7.45pm after shutting the main door. He bought a saw, three blades, a hammer and plastic clips from a local hardware shop to cut it into pieces. The next day, he bought a new fridge, stored the pieces in the freezer and disposed off the body parts in the forested tracts of Chhatarpur, Mehrauli, one by one.
The police, while carrying out further probe into the missing personโs complaint related to Walkar that was lodged by her father with the Maharashtra police, also seized her silver ring that he had allegedly โgiftedโ to one of her female friends with whom he had interacted after the murder. The girl later approached the Delhi police to return the valuable.
