Shraddha Walkar murder case: Accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala is likely to be taken to several places he earlier visited with his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar. According to the details, investigators in the case are likely to take Aftab to various locations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which would help them establish the sequence of events leading to the brutal murder of Walkar.
Poonawala and Walkar had travelled to several locations after they left Mumbai and the police are now looking to establish if something had happened on those trips to trigger the murder.
"We will talk to the owners and staffers of hotels where the couple had stayed in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and also make them identify Poonawala," a source said.
The source said Poonawala had misled the investigators about the route taken by him and so will be taken back to the Mehrauli forest.
"We will also take him to the forest area to ascertain the routes taken by him while dumping the severed body parts," the source said.
"We have recovered body parts from four locations in the forest area. He had used a saw to chop the body parts, which he had allegedly bought from a shop on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road. We will also take him to that shop so that the shopkeeper can identify him," the source said.
The police are approaching other police districts for sharing information about any decomposed body parts recovered in their districts in the last six months.
In June, a decomposed head and hand were found in the bushes in Ramlila Ground near the Kalyanpuri area of east Delhi.
"The body parts were preserved. In absence of any missing complaint that could be related to those remains, the case was not solved. We will share the information and details with the south district police to see whether there is any link between the two cases," said an investigator of the case.
In addition to the developments, the police have also traced the garbage van in which accused Poonawala had disposed of his and Walkar's blood-stained clothes, besides recovering an unpaid water bill of Rs 300 and food bills at the accused's rented accommodation in Delhi's Chhatarpur area.
Shraddha Walkar murder case: Court allows police to conduct Aftab's narco test
On Thursday, a Delhi court permitted the city police to question Mehrauli killing accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala for five more days in its custody, while another judge allowed his narco analysis test to unravel the sensational case after he consented to undergo the forensic procedure.
Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla passed the order after the accused was produced before him through video conferencing, considering the threat perception to Poonawala due to the surcharged atmosphere in the court premises which also witnessed protest from around 100 lawyers.
The lawyers assembled in the court premises shouting slogans against Poonawala and demanded the death penalty for him.
Prior to the production of the accused before the court on the expiry of his earlier five-day custodial interrogation, Delhi Police moved a plea before the judge in a packed courtroom, seeking the accused's production before the court virtually, due to the possibility of attack by "some religious outfits and miscreants" on the accused, which was allowed.
"I am aware of the sensitivity of the matter, the media coverage and the public traction," the judge said, while allowing the police plea.
The hearing of his further custody was held in the absence of media and those unconnected to the case.
After the proceedings, the court sources informed that the accused was sent to five more days of custodial interrogation at the hands of police which had sought 10 days of custodial interrogation in the case.
The detailed order of the proceeds is awaited.
Metropolitan Magistrate Vijayshree Rathore, meanwhile, allowed the police to conduct Poonawala's narco analysis test to unravel the case.
Police had moved an application seeking the narco test on November 12.
The court passed the order after noting that the accused had given his consent for the test, his advocate Abinash Kumar said.
What happened with Shraddha Walkar?
Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala met Shraddha Walkar through an online dating app.
Later, they started working for the same call center in Mumbai and fell in love.
However, their families objected to their relationship as they belonged to different faiths, prompting the couple to move to Mehrauli earlier this year.
Around mid-May, the couple had an argument, which escalated and Poonawala killed her.
The next day, he purchased a saw and a 300-liter refrigerator.
Poonawala had studied hotel management and was trained in handling sharp knives as he had undergone a two-week training on how to cut meat.
Poonawala would pack the refrigerator's deep freezer with the pieces and put the remaining ones in the bottom tray.
After some time, he would take the frozen pieces out to deep freeze those kept in the tray.
He also used incense sticks and room fresheners to suppress the foul smell.
Police said that he used to take out the chopped pieces, pack them in polythene bags and take them to the forest in a backpack.
"He would go to the jungle at around 2 am and return a couple of hours later. He repeated this for around 20 days," an official said.
Police have described Poonawala as "sharp-minded" and someone who is more comfortable answering questions in English though he knows Hindi.
Staying active on Walkar's social media account helped him conceal the murder, but it was only a matter of time before he ran out of luck and the police came knocking at his door.
Details of the killing and its grisly aftermath came to light during his interrogation last week following which Poonawala was arrested in the early hours of Saturday.
Mumbai Police said Poonawala appeared confident all through with no trace of remorse on his face when Manikpur police in Maharashtra called him for questioning earlier this month.
His contradictory statements raised the suspicion of Mumbai Police, prompting them to rope in Delhi Police following which the accused was apprehended.
Poonawala's aggressive side was seen by a Delhi doctor who treated him in May, the same month when Walkar was killed.
Dr. Anil Kumar recalled Poonawalla was very aggressive and restless when he had come to him for treatment and when he asked him about his injury, he claimed he got hurt while cutting fruit.
Days before the murder came to light, Poonawalla had helped his family move to Mumbai from Vasai.
As the bone-chilling details of the crime unravel, the investigation is on into the gruesome case.
Aftab Amin Poonawala: Food blogger to barbaric killer
There is nothing striking about his face that may leave an impression but trained chef and photographer Aftab Amin Poonawala had a fiendish side.
Accused of butchering his live-in partner, the 28-year-old food blogger by profession is now being likened to a notorious serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy who raped, mutilated and murdered scores of women.
An avid follower of crime shows, Poonawala allegedly killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar after a quarrel over marriage and said the idea of chopping her body into 35 pieces was inspired by the American crime TV series "Dexter".
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Poonawala lived along with his younger brother Ahad, father Amin and mother Munira Ben in Unique Park Housing Society in the Vasai suburb.
Residents of the society recall that the brothers used to fight often but there was nothing more significant about his personality that would give an inkling about his diabolical side.
A graduate of LS Raheja College in Mumbai, Poonawala shifted to Delhi earlier this year only after he met Walkar.
Poonawala, who has a page on Instagram by the name 'HungryChokro' which has 29.1k followers, met Walkar through an online dating application.
Later, they started working for the same call center in Mumbai and fell in love.
(With inputs from PTI)
