Shraddha Walkar Murder Case
Shraddha Walker, a 26-year-old woman, allegedly killed by her 28-year-old live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala in Delhi.
The accused reportedly inspired by the American series ‘Dexter’, allegedly chopped his partner Shraddha Walkar into 35 pieces and disposed them off across the city over the course of several days.
Aaftab allegedly strangled Shraddha in May and chopped her body into 35 pieces. He kept the pieces in a 300 litre fridge for almost a month at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days.
He had thrown the body pieces at various locations over a period of 18 days. To avoid suspicion, he used to leave his house with a body part in a polybag at around 2 a.m. To conceal the stench, he lit incense sticks at his home.
The matter came to light on November 8 when the victim’s father along with a police team from Palghar, Maharashtra, came to the Mehrauli police station to register a missing complaint.
The forensic team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday went to Delhi’s Mehrauli police station to examine 10 suspected human parts that were collected from the Mehrauli forest area, in connection with the case.
For the second time on Tuesday morning, the police team took the accused Aftab Ameen Poonawala to the Mehrauli forest area to recover the remains of the body of Shraddha.
Besides an alleged confession statement and 13 bones recovered from near Chhatarpur Pahadi crematorium and Dhan Mill, the Delhi Police have little to either establish the guilt of suspect Aaftab. According to the doctor, the bones appeared to be of ribs and the pelvic region.
The police officials said that the recovered bones have been sent to the forensic laboratory, where a DNA profiling will be done to ascertain if they belonged to Shraddha.
Forensic experts said that linking the recovered bones with the missing or dead woman (Shraddha) will not be an easy task, given the fact that the recoveries have been made almost six months after the alleged crime.
It has been developed by the forensic scientists that before establishing the crime and its perpetrator, the police should first corroborate Poonawala’s statement with other evidence.
The police were also yet to establish the weapon used to chop the body, a key evidence in the case. According to officers, it could be a “heavy, sharp weapon” or a hack saw.
A team of forensic experts visited the crime scene on Saturday to check for evidence, including fingerprints, blood, skin, etc. It has been informed from the police that forensic experts noticed some “blood spots” in the flat, and lifted the samples.
In his alleged statement to the police, Aaftab said that he cleaned the entire flat using toilet cleaning acid repeatedly for a few days to remove blood stains.
Since this incidence have came into account of the public, there is a huge outrage in the people. People have come on the roads, demanding for the justice to Shraddha. The police and the CBI is highly active in the case. Forensic Psychologists are also contacted for their opinions in the case.
According to Forensic psychologist Deepti Puranik, there is no one factor that can be directly attributed for such behaviour.
She said, “We find it often these days that people get stressed out easily, they are not able to tolerate frustration. And there is certainly a lack of communication. Instead of communicating and resolving the issue, they are resorting to fighting”.
She also blamed violent films and TV shows for such violence by saying, “Ample studies in people who watch violent tv shows have reflected that there is an increase in aggression. If you look at OTT platforms, we have a kind of normalized aggression and violence. Adolescent young people become immune to these things after watching it on TV so much”.
According to the police, various chilling revelations have indicated that the accused had made up his mind to kill Shraddha more than a week before the murder. Investigation is still in progress and it has been expected that positive results will be achieved.
