Shraddha murder case: Delhi Police record statements of Aaftab’s family members

NEW DELHI, (ANI): The Delhi Police on Wednesday recorded the statements of the family of accused Aaftab Amin Poonawalla in the gruesome Shraddha Walkar murder case.

Aaftab is accused of strangling to death his live-in partner Shraddha and chopping her body into 35 pieces.

He is also alleged to have preserved the chopped body parts in a refrigerator before dumping them in the forests of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur.

Meanwhile, a complaint filed by Shraddha in 2020 informing Maharashtra Police against Aaftab’s brutalities against her has surfaced. In the letter to Tulini Police in Palghar, Shraddha alleged that she may be harmed if police did not take action.

In her letter, Shraddha alleged that Aaftab Poonawala beat her and threatened to kill him. “If something happens to me, you should know who to go after,” she further wrote in her letter to police.

According to sources, Aaftab’s family may be called in for questioning again. “Aaftab Poonawala’s family is in Delhi. Their statements were recorded. Based on the facts that have come to light about the family, they may be questioned again. Shraddha had filed a complaint in Mumbai in 2020 that his family knows he wants to kill her,” said sources.

Tulini Police have confirmed that the deceased had written a complaint on November 23, 2020, which was shared by her neighbour with whom Shraddha had gone to file the complaint. Aaftab had on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he murdered his girlfriend in the “heat of the moment”.

He was produced before the Saket court in the national capital on Tuesday after his five-day police custody expired. “What happened that happened in heat of the moment,” Aaftab told the court.

A court-sanctioned polygraphy test on Aaftab was initiated in the national capital on Tuesday. The assistant director of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Rohini, Sanjeev Gupta said the process of conducting a polygraph test on Aaftab has begun and the report will be out in a week’s time. Delhi Police had previously said Aaftab, following his arrest in the case, confessed to killing his live-in partner in their apartment in West Delhi’s Chhatarpur and chopping her body into 35 pieces.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Gupta said, “We’ve been directed by the Delhi Police and our director to process this case fast. We are working on some parameters that are important before conducting a narco test.” In a polygraph test, the subject is asked a series of questions while his physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration are measured. This data is then used to determine if the subject is lying.

Aaftab is alleged to have preserved the chopped body parts in a refrigerator before dumping them in the forests of Chhatarpur. Aaftab and Shraddha met on a dating site and moved in together to a rented accommodation in Chhatarpur as the relationship grew.

On receipt of the complaint from Shraddha’s father, Delhi Police registered an FIR on November 10.

Subsequent interrogation of the accused revealed that Aaftab killed Shraddha on May 18 after which he started researching ways to dispose of the body. He also borrowed ideas on disposal from popular crime shows on his streaming devices, Delhi Police revealed.

He also told police that he also read up on human anatomy before chopping his girlfriend’s body. Police said, after browsing on the internet on ways to remove all traces of his crime, Aaftab mopped blood stains from the floor of the couple’s Chhatarpur apartment with some chemicals and also disposed of all stained clothes.

He then shifted the body to the bathroom and bought a refrigerator where he stored the chopped body parts, police further said. (ANI)