Shraddha Walkar murder case: Aaftab a trained chef, expert in preserving flesh: Cops tell court
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Tuesday told a local court that Aaftab Amin Poonawala, who allegedly killed his 27-year-old live-in partner, Shraddha Walkar, and chopped her body into several pieces before disposing them off at several places, was a trained chef and knew how to preserve flesh for a long time.
“The accused was a trained chef at Taj Hotel and had also ordered dry ice, agarbatti etc., after killing Shraddha to preserve her body parts for a long time,” the police told Saket court during a hearing in the case. Shraddha was allegedly strangled on May 18 this year, her body chopped into several pieces, and disposed off at different locations by Aaftab, who was arrested on November 12, six months after the crime.
After the police made its submission, Aaftab’s legal aid counsel Javed Hussain sought time to address the arguments.The chargesheet filed last month said, “To get rid off Shraddha, I sat on her chest and choked her until she was dead. Then I hid her body in the bathroom and planned to dispose it off by chopping it into several pieces for which I bought a saw, three blades and a hammer from a shop in Chattarpur Pahadi,” the chargesheet read.
Aaftab said that he was possessive and used to have frequent fights with Shraddha. “Sometimes I even used to beat her and she even complained to the Mumbai Police one time,” the confession read. Due to these strained relations the couple planned a trip and left for Mumbai around March 28-29, 2022. From there, they went to Rishikesh, Dehradun, Mussoorie, Manali, Chandigarh and finally reached Parvati valley where they met a boy named Badri. The couple already knew Badri through the Bumble app and later he invited them to Delhi.
They reached Delhi on May 5 and stayed in Badri’s house for 10-12 days. But even after this trip, there was hardly any change in their relationship. “Badri asked us to leave and then we shifted to a flat on the first floor in Chattarpur Pahari area,” the chargesheet read.
Aaftab first allegedly chopped her hands and kept them in polythene in the bathroom. The next day, he bought trash bags, one knife and a chopper from a shop and while putting them in his backpack, he accidentally cut his wrist. “In the evening, I then chopped her ankles and legs till knees, put them in the trash bag and preserved them in the newly bought refrigerator,” it read. Later, he allegedly ordered several disinfectant toilet cleaner bottles from Blinkit to clean the blood.
Two days after the murder, he allegedly took out the intestines and viscera from Shraddha’s body, packed them into a polythene bag and threw them into a dustbin somewhere close to his house.