Aaftab Poonawala used a stone grinder to turn Shraddha’s bones to powder for easy disposal.
New Delhi:
More details of Aaftab Poonawala’s elaborate attempts to dispose of his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar’s body and cover his tracks have been revealed in the Delhi Police charge sheet that runs to 6,600 pages.
One of the biggest clues that Aaftab was lying about Shraddha’s whereabouts was in the money he transferred from her account to his own after their supposed “break-up”.
On May 18, after murdering Shraddha, Aaftab Poonawala transferred Rs 50,000 from her bank account to his own, then Rs 4,000. A day later, he transferred Rs 250 from the account.
On June 7, he transferred Rs 6,000 more from her account to his.
The bank activity exposed his lie about not knowing where Shraddha was, the police say.
After strangling Shraddha, Aaftab cut up her body and disposed of the parts bit by bit, over three months. He used a stone grinder to turn her bones to powder for easy disposal. Her head was one of the last pieces he threw away.
Aaftab dumped Shraddha Walkar’s lipstick, mobile phone, credit and debit cards in the sea waters at Bhayandar in Mumbai, where he went to school.
Clumps of Shraddha’s hair were found near MG Road, Gurugram.
He allegedly disposed of the weapons used to cut up her body – a saw, a chopper and a blade – in the bushes in Aya Nagar near MG Road in Gurugram. They haven’t been found yet, the charge sheet says.
A knife, hammer, and a pair of scissors, also used in the gruesome task, were kept in Aaftab’s apartment in Chhattarpur.
The mobile phone that he had on the night of the killing, sold on Amazon to a man named Ubaidullah, was also found by the police.
Videos and audio recordings of Aaftab and Shraddha’s counselling sessions are also part of the evidence.
The troubled pair had signed up for the sessions on a medical App after a huge fight in Mumbai, the police said.
Computer logs, GPS tracking and activity on the Bumble dating App proved that Shraddha’s mobile phone was active in the apartment where she was killed, long after her disappearance.
Shraddha first logged on to Bumble on May 13, and her final login was on May 20, two days after her death.
A ring that Aaftab had gifted Shraddha was recovered from the woman that he started dating after the murder. He had bought the ring online in 2021; he gifted a similar ring to his sister.
The police said Shraddha and Aaftab’s mobile phone locations were the same between June 1 and 8 – another of many giveaways in his claims about her disappearance. From June 10 to 19, Shraddha’s mobile phone was said to be in Delhi.
There was no outgoing call from Shraddha’s mobile phone after May 18. The last incoming call on the phone was on May 20 and the last message, on May 26. The phone was inactive after that.
On May 18, the two had plans to go to Mumbai, but Aaftab got the ticket cancelled. It was followed by yet another fight over expenses and in the heat of the moment, Poonawala strangled her.
Aaftab’s bizarre shopping list also helped the police piece together the crime and the horrific cover-up.
Immediately after killing his live-in partner, Aaftab ordered a single chicken roll on Zomato – dinner for one, hours after lunch for two.
He ordered 11 kg dry ice to preserve the body, the charge sheet reveals.
For three days after the murder, he ordered 16 20-litre bottles, bleach and toilet cleaner.
He also posted on Instagram that Shraddha had left him and called his friends with the same story. For weeks, he operated Shraddha’s Instagram account to give the impression she’s alive.
To continue the charade, Aaftab asked his new girlfriend to talk to Shraddha, the charge sheet says. When the woman called her, the phone was switched off. Her message drew a reply which would later prove to have been written by Aaftab – “Shraddha’s” message said she had broken up with Aaftab after a fight, that she had left him and gone to Rishikesh and that she would “never return to Delhi”.
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