New Delhi: The Delhi Police has arrested a man on charges of murdering his live-in girlfriend, then disposing the body after chopping it into pieces.
Senior officer Ankit Chauhan said the man, Aftab Poonawalla, and his girlfriend Shraddha came to Delhi from Mumbai earlier this year. “He murdered her after she started talking about marriage,” Chauhan said of the couple who had met and “fallen in love” in Mumbai.
Poonawalla strangled the girl on 18 May and chopped her body into 35 pieces, a report said.
He then bought a fridge to store the parts, and planned to dispose of them in the Mehrauli forest over several days to avoid suspicion.
Over the next few months, Poonawalla stepped out at 2 am every night to dump the parts.
Chairperson for the Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal has demanded the accused be thoroughly punished.
एक रूह कँपाने वाले मामले में दिल्ली में एक लड़की को उसके बॉयफ्रेंड ने जान से मार दिया और उसके 35 टुकड़े कर फ्रिज में रखे! उसके शव के टुकड़ों को शहर के अलग अलग इलाक़ों में फेंका। समाज में कैसे कैसे दरिंदे पल रहे हैं। पुलिस ने आरोपी को गिरफ़्तार किया है, दरिंदे को कड़ी सजा हो। pic.twitter.com/aMppxvu8zv
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) November 14, 2022
The 26-year-old victim worked at a call centre in Mumbai where she met Poonawalla. The two started dating and moved in together, the cops said. They added that the couple came to Delhi since their parents did not approve of the relationship. They lived in a flat in Mehrauli, south of the Capital.
Shraddha’s father came to Delhi in early November, worried at his daughter’s continued silence.
When he found her flat locked, the father Vikas Madaan filed a case of kidnapping at the Mehrauli police station.
The police arrested Poonawalla on Saturday, who told cops that the couple fought a lot on the question of marriage.
The police have not determined whether remains recovered from the forest are human, according to the report. The murder weapon has also not been found.
Also read: Murder over love, lust, hatred, deceit — Bengaluru again tops India’s revenge killings list