From lover to killer, how Aaftab Poonawala turned a savage: The story of Shraddha Walker’s murder
Mangalore Today News Network
New Delhi, Nov 16, 2022: Usually, every house has a fridge. That house also had one. The unusual thing about this fridge was that parts of a body were kept in it along with food, drinking water and milk.
The fridge owner would take out food, water and milk from it and have them. At midnight, he would take out some of the body parts and venture out on the roads of Delhi. For 18 days on the trot, he scattered those body parts across Delhi.
And for 5 months, the man continued to live normally while escaping police radar. When the secret was revealed, it sent shockwaves across the nation. Know about a love story that turned fatal.
LOVE STORY THAT STARTED IN MUMBAI
It all started when 25-year-old Shraddha Walker came to Mumbai in 2018 looking for a job. She left behind her family, including her father, mother and brother, in Palghar, Maharashtra. Her father, Vikas Walker, used to have an electronics service shop. His family comprised Suman, his wife, a 23-year-old son, Shrijay and his daughter Shraddha.
After coming to Mumbai, Shraddha got a job at a call centre of an MNC in Mumbai’s Malad. Aaftab Ameen Poonawala had been working in the same call centre. It is here that they both met.
FORCING HIM TO MARRY
Almost after 8-9 months, they fell in love. Back in 2019, the couple decided that they would live together and took a house on rent in Malad. After living with Aaftab for some months, Shraddha told about their live-in relationship to her mother.
Her father also came to know about it. They both objected to their affair and asked Shraddha to come to Palghar to discuss the matter. Despite her parents’ opposition, she continued to insist on staying with Aaftab and marrying him.
DEATH OF SHRADDHA’S MOTHER
Following arguments with her parents, Shraddha collected all her things and left the Palghar house, saying that “I am now dead for you all”. Her family did not contact her for some time and maintained a distance from her.
However, they kept getting information about Shraddha from her friends through Facebook and WhatsApp status. On January 23, 2020, Shraddha’s mother, Suman, passed away. Suman used to talk to her daughter over the phone. When Shraddha got the news of her death, she rushed to Palghar. After the rituals, she joined Aaftab back in Mumbai.
SHE DIDN’T LISTEN TO HER FATHER
Before her death, Suman had told her husband that Aaftab used to physically assault their daughter, Shraddha. Suman had tried to persuade Shraddha to leave him. But Shraddha had said, “Aaftab has said sorry and is mending his ways.” Over 15-20 days after her mother’s death, Shraddha spoke with her father twice.
She told her father that Aaftab still assaulted her. Her father had asked her to break up. But Shraddha didn’t listen to her father’s advice. For the next two years, Shraddha and her father didn’t speak to each other. However, Vikas used to enquire about her well-being from her friends off and on.
SHIFTING TO DELHI
Shraddha and Aaftab left Mumbai and arrived in Delhi on May 8, 2022. There were two reasons behind the relocation. First, Aaftab’s family was also against their relationship. Second, they thought there were chances of getting a better job in the national capital. They spent the first night at a hotel in Paharganj. On the second day, they had put up in another hotel. On the third, they stayed at a common friend’s house in Chattarpur.
After a few days, they rented a house in Chattarpur. This is the house – D 93/1 -- where the incident happened. Shraddha started searching for a job in Delhi. Aaftab had already got a job at a call centre.
SHRADDHA’S MOBILE SWITCHED OFF
Shraddha had not been in contact with her father and brother for a long time. But they had come to know through Shraddha’s friends that she and Aaftab were now in Delhi. On September, 2022, Lakshman Nadar, a friend of Shraddha’s brother Shrijay, told him that his sister’s mobile phone is “switched off” for the last 2 months. He asked Shrijay if he had received any call from Shraddha.
Shraddha’s father, Vikas, called Lakshman and enquired about Shraddha. Lakshman told him that normally, he used to have a talk with Shraddha over phone in 2-3 days, but for the last 2 months, he is unable to connect as her mobile phone was switched off.
PALGHAR COPS INFORM DELHI COUNTERPARTS
Vikas called up Shraddha’s other friends. All of them said that they had not been able to speak to Shraddha for the last 2.5 months. This rattled Vikas. Shraddha’s father lodged a missing report about his daughter with Manikpur police station in Palghar. Since Shraddha was staying in Chattarpur in Delhi, the Palghar Police informed Mehrauli police station about the matter.
POLICE START PROBE
Mehrauli Police registered a missing report based on Shraddha’s father complaint on November 9. Vikas also told Delhi Police that Aaftab and his daughter were in a live-in relationship and staying in Chattarpur. After this, the police started probing the matter. First of all, they started tracking Aaftab’s mobile phone. They detected that since May 19, Aaftab’s mobile phone location showed that he was in Delhi. They also came to know that Shraddha’s phone has remained switched off since May 19. After this, the Mehrauli Police swung into action and reached Aaftab’s house. They started interrogating him.
AAFTAB SPILLS THE BEANS
At first, Aaftab concocted a story. He said he and Shraddha had a fight in the second half of May and after the quarrel, she had left the house. He tried to talk to her many times after the incident, but her mobile phone was switched off.
Police had searched Aaftab’s house but couldn’t find anything. During questioning, Aaftab started making contradictory statements. This is when the police started suspecting Aaftab and felt he was hiding something. When the police got tough on him, he narrated a story that sent shivers down everyone’s spines.
THE FATEFUL NIGHT
It was on the night of May 18, when Shraddha and Aaftab had a fight in their Chattarpur house. It was over an issue that had strained their relationship. Shraddha wanted to get married and Aaftab was reluctant. However, the fight was so intense this time that Aaftab strangled Shraddha to death. He then started thinking how to dispose of the body.
GOT A NEW FRIDGE AND SAW
The next day (May 19), he went to the local market and got a big new fridge from Tilak Electronics shop and also bought a huge saw. After this, he chopped Shraddha’s body into small pieces in the bathroom. He had also bought polythene bags to keep the body pieces. But since it was the month of May and very hot, the body had started giving out a stench. He used room fresheners to suppress the obnoxious smell.
HE KEPT BODY PARTS IN FRIDGE
Aaftab continued chopping the body into pieces and keeping them in the fridge. He had kept food, drinking water and milk in the same fridge. Since he couldn’t cut the entire body into pieces in one day, he left the half-chopped body in the fridge, along with the other body parts. Then, he ordered food from Zomato. Aaftab took rest after that. At 2 am, he kept the body pieces in the polythene bags. He walked to the Mehrauli forest area and scattered the body parts there. Aaftab came back and went to sleep in the same room where the fridge was kept.
DUMPING BODY PARTS
For 18 days (till June 5), Aaftab kept dumping the body parts across Delhi. Every day, he used to carry out the same exercise after 2 am. He chose different places to dispose of the body pieces so that even if someone stumbles upon a body part, the identity of the body remains unknown. During these 18 days, he neither met nor spoke to any neighbours.
COPS START COMBING
Now, it was the turn of the Mehrauli Police to search for the body parts. They took Aaftab to the places where he had dumped the pieces. Till now, they have been able to recover some body parts. It has been 5 months since Aaftab dumped them, so it won’t be possible to find all the scattered pieces.
SEARCH FOR THE SAW
The police have found the fridge in which Aaftab kept the body parts. They could find it because Aaftab was confident that the cops would never be able to close in on him. So, he didn’t dispose of the fridge. Forensic test of the fridge will bring to fore many facts. Currently, Aaftab has been arrested and is in police custody. Police are also searching for the saw with which Aaftab chopped the body.
WHAT INSPIRED AAFTAB
During interrogation, Aaftab told the police that he got the idea of cutting the body into pieces from the American crime series ‘Dexter’. He bought a huge saw and a big fridge for the purpose.
SOME BODY PARTS FOUND
Police said Aaftab was very smart and executed his plan to dispose of the body parts meticulously. He knew which parts would rot fast and therefore, had to be dumped first. Around 16 body parts have been recovered by the cops. Only after forensic examination can it be established if they belong to Shraddha’s.
MEETING THROUGH ONLINE DATING APP
Aaftab and Shraddha had met through an online dating app. It was after this that they saw each other first when they both started working in the same call centre in Malad. They drew close and fell in love. Police said that when they disclosed their relationship to their family, they raised objection to it since they belonged to different faiths. After this, they shifted to Delhi from Mumbai.
SHRADDHA’S FATHER CAN’T BELIEVE IT
Shraddha’s father, Vikas, said that Aaftab looked quite normal while confessing to him that he had strangled his daughter to death. Aaftab also told him that he chopped her body into small pieces and threw them across Delhi. Vikas said until and unless the forensic examination establishes her death and the death report comes, he will not believe that his daughter is no more.
Courtesy: India Today