New Delhi: Delhi police, in its chargesheet, have revealed that Aftab Poonawalla crushed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar’s bones into powder using a stone grinder and disposed of her head three months after killing her in Delhi.
The 6,600-page document also mentioned that Poonawalla had discarded her mobile and a lipstick later in Mumbai.
The couple had moved to Delhi in early 2022, and shortly afterward, following an argument over expenses and his infidelity, Poonawalla strangled Shraddha to death on 18 May in their East Delhi flat.
The police have claimed in the chargesheet that Aftab had girlfriends “all the way from Delhi to Dubai.”
After his arrest in the second week of November last year, Aftab allegedly told the police that he had chopped Shraddha’s body into 35 pieces and dumped them in the Mehrauli forest. So far, less than 20 pieces have been recovered.
The chargesheet, which was filed at the end of January, has the testimonies of over 150 witnesses in the gruesome murder. It also states that Aftab ate a chicken roll bought from Zomator after he killed Shraddha.
Sources in the Delhi Police had earlier told ThePrint that nearly 20 recovered body parts matched the DNA collected from Shraddha’s father. “Some other pieces were also collected, however, due to their condition the DNA couldn’t be extracted. All body remains were collected upon the instance of the accused,” another source said.
After his arrest, Aftab led the police to several spots where he dumped her body parts. He also confessed to initially storing them in a refrigerator that he bought for the purpose on 19 May.
The chargesheet reportedly stated that Aftab allegedly shifted Shraddha’s body parts from the fridge to kitchen cabinets when another woman he met on a dating app visited his rented apartment in the months following the murder.
Quoting from Poonawala’s disclosures to the police, the chargesheet reads: “I disposed of one thigh part of the body in the jungles of Chattarpur Pahari… over the next 4 to 5 days, I cut the dead body into 17 pieces, three pieces of each hand, three pieces of each legs, head, torso, two pieces of pelvic, and thumb.”
The chargesheets further quotes him saying, “Soon after I came in contact with a girl… through an app. She also visited my flat and used to stay at night several times… whenever she used to visit my flat, I used to clean the refrigerator and put the body parts in the lower cabinet.”
After the woman left, he moved the pieces to the refrigerator, the chargesheet added.
The Delhi Police’s probe into the case has so far involved high-level technical and scientific evidence collection methods. DNA tests, advanced DNA mitochondrial profiling tests, CCTV trail analysis, voice analysis, polygraph test, and face recognition system results are part of the chargesheet.
The documents additionally include mobile, laptop, social media services, call record details, and GPS locations.
Delhi’s Saket court, which took cognizance of the chargesheet on Tuesday, has listed the matter for hearing on 21 February for the scrutiny of documents. The accused has been given a copy of the document.
There was heavy security in the court Tuesday before the closed-door hearing by Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla. Cops combed the premises with a dog squad and kept the media out.