Aftab Amin Poonawalla, the accused in the Shraddha murder case, had used his girlfriend's Instagram account until June to give the impression she was alive, Delhi police said on Tuesday.
The brutal murder of the 26-year-old Palghar girl Shraddha, which took place on May 18, has shaken the nation beyond belief. The gruesome murder came to light on November 14 after the Delhi police finally zeroed in on Poonawala and arrested him. The accused has now confessed to the diabolical crime.
He “confessed to the crime in one day. He was in front of me and admitted that he killed Shraddha. I couldn't hear everything because I was in no condition after learning that my daughter had died," said the victim's father.
According to the Delhi police, after killing Shraddha, Aftab cut several pieces of her body and threw them in different places in the forest so that she would not be caught.
Aftab had strangled his girlfriend Shraddha until her death on May 18 this year. Shraddha and Aftab were in a cohabiting relationship and lived in Delhi from Mumbai.
Why Aftab killed Shraddha
The accused identified as Aftab Amin Poonawalla (28), a Mumbai resident, was seized on Saturday based on the complaint from the deceased's father and has been remanded in remand for five days, police said on Monday.
“The two met through a dating app in Mumbai. They had been in a cohabitation relationship for three years and had moved to Delhi. Soon after the two of them moved to Delhi, Shraddha started putting pressure on the man to marry her," South Delhi additional DCP-I Ankit Chauhan told ANI.
“The two argued frequently and it used to get out of hand. In this particular case that occurred on May 18, the man lost his temper and strangled her,” Chouhan said.
“The accused told us that he cut it into pieces and disposed of parts of it in nearby areas in the jungle area of the Chhatarpur enclave. He has been arrested and is being investigated,” Chouhan added.
What was revealed in the inquiry
- Delhi Police has told that after the murder Aftab threw Shraddha's phone, and now the police are looking for that phone.
- Police said that even after killing Shraddha, Aftab kept using her Instagram account till June to make people think that Shraddha was alive.
- However, till now the police have not been able to find the weapon which was used by Aftab to dismember Shraddha's body.
- The Delhi police investigation revealed that the couple had frequent fights. Additionally, Poonawala continued to meet multiple women on the dating app after killing Walkar.
- In March-April, the duo went to hill stations. They had both travelled to Himachal Pradesh for a few days and stayed together where they met a man who lived in Chhatarpur.
- Poonawalla said that she used to carry her body parts in black aluminium foil at 2:00 a.m. due to the low movement of people at that time.
- Aftab used to sleep every day in the same room where she had cut up her body after killing Shraddha. He used to see her face after putting it in the fridge. Aftab had cleaned out the fridge after disposing of the body parts.
What is known so far?
- Shraddha and Aftab met through a dating app in Mumbai.
- In 2018, Shraddha used to work in a call center in Mumbai.
- Shraddha lived with her mother and her father lived separately.
- In 2019, Shraddha told her mother about Aftab and expressed her desire to be together. But the mother refused due to different religion.
- Shraddha got angry and left the house and started living in live-in with Aftab.
- According to the FIR, a few days later, Shraddha told her mother that Aftab used to beat her up.
- After some time Shraddha's mother passed away. Then Shraddha called her father and talked about it and after meeting him also told him about Aftab.
- When there was no contact with Shraddha for two months, her friend informed about this to Shraddha's brother. After which the father filed a missing report in Mumbai.
- In the Mumbai police investigation, Shraddha's last location was found in the Mehrauli area of Delhi.
- The matter reached the Delhi Police and in the investigation the needle of suspicion reached Aftab.
- Police say that during interrogation, Aftab confessed to killing Shraddha and dismembering his body and throwing it into the forest.
- The police investigation revealed that Aftab and Shraddha often quarrelled over the marriage issue and on May 18, Aftab killed Shraddha in a fit of rage and also bought a new large refrigerator to hide the body parts.
- Police have recovered a fridge from Aftab's home.
- However, so far no clue has been found about the weapon used in the murder. The search for him continues.
- The police said that Aftab and Shraddha had only come to live in the Mehrauli area in May.
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