Aftab Poonawalla applied formalin to Shraddha Walkar’s body parts stored in his fridge to prevent rotting and decay

NEW DELHI: The 27-year-old Aftab Amin Poonawalla who killed his live-in girlfriend Shraddha Walkar and cut up her body into 35 pieces had stored the body parts in his refrigerator for 2-3 months before disposing them off completely. He purchased a new 300-litre fridge to store the body parts.

Now, according to reliable sources, after researching on the internet, Aftab purchased a chemical known as formalin in liquid form and applied it to Shraddha’s corpse to preserve it and prevent it from rotting early.

He used to apply formalin to the body parts kept in the fridge every two days, sources said.

Formalin has a very pungent odor and to ensure that nobody in the neighbourhood got suspicious, Aftab used ittar, agarbattis and other fragrances and perfumes in his room to hide the smell of formalin and other chemicals.

He later dumped the body parts one or two at a time in the Mehrauli forest. He used to make trips late at night, with the body parts wrapped in plastic and carried in a bag to avoid any suspicion.

What is Formalin?

Formaldehyde is a colorless chemical with a strong pickle-like odor that is commonly used in many manufacturing processes.

It is very volatile and easily becomes gas at room temperature, which makes it part of a larger group of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Large concentrations of formaldehyde emit a strong, pungent odor that resembles a combination of vinegar and burnt matches.

A 37% aqueous (water) solution of formaldehyde, a pungent gas, with the chemical formula HCHO, is used as an antiseptic, disinfectant, and especially today as a fixative for histology (the study of tissues under the microscope).

Formalin is a severe skin irritant and a sensitizer. Contact with formalin causes white discoloration, smarting, drying, cracking, and scaling. Prolonged and repeated contact can cause numbness and a hardening or tanning of the skin, besides other problems. It is normally used as a preservative in school and college laboratories to store and preserve specimens.

However, use of formalin to preserve edible substances like fish and meat is banned. Unfortunately, it is still used illegally to preserve fish and meat by bulk suppliers instead of refrigeration during transport from one state to the other.

Besides, formaldehyde is used in many industries. It’s used in glues and resins, dyes, textiles, disinfectants, building materials, automobile parts, embalming, and laboratories.

Ingestion or consumption of aqueous solutions of formaldehyde can result in severe corrosive injury to the esophagus and stomach. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, inflammation of the stomach, and ulceration and perforation of the oropharynx, epiglottis, esophagus, and stomach may occur.