Delhi Murder Case Updates: Blood samples of victim's father, brother collected for DNA analysis

Aftab Poonawala, accused of killing her live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, had accompanied Walkar when she was brought to a hospital in Mumbai for acute shoulder and back pain in the year 2020, news agency ANI quoted the doctor who treated the girl as saying, on Friday.

A Delhi Police team probing the killing of Shradha Walkar visited the office of a private firm in Gurugram where the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala used to work, officials said on Friday. Following a search, the police were seen carrying a plastic bag containing items recovered from bushes in the vicinity of the office. However, the officials did not reveal the contents of the bag.

Shraddha Walkar's relationship with Aaftab Poonawala took a toll on her mother’s health and she passed away in January 2020, her father Vikas told Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Neelam Gorhe who called on him at his Vasai residence on Thursday. Speaking to mediapersons after meeting the father, Gorhe, deputy chairperson of the legislative council, said the family had sensed that their daughter was under pressure in her relationship with Poonawala, though it was not clear to them if she was being tortured or had financial constraints. Gorhe said according to Vikas, Shraddha spoke about her fights with Poonawala but refused to return home.

Exactly 11 years ago, a murder eerily similar to the Shraddha Walkar case had rocked the capital. Niranjani Pillai, a 27-year-old South African lawyer, was allegedly killed by her husband, Sumit Handa, on October 29, 2011. A supposed video call with a male friend, suspicions of infidelity and constant fights had apparently provoked Handa into stabbing his wife in the abdomen, strangling her with the laptop charging cord and stashing her body in the bathroom of their flat in south Delhi's Pul Prahladpur. Police said Handa then carried out a marathon internet search and relied on TV shows to chop the woman’s body into pieces and stuff them into a trolley bag and her belongings into another. He drove to Rai in Haryana, 70km from Delhi, to get rid of the incriminating trolley bags. He bought some petrol at a gas station, dragged the bags to a forest 200 metres away and then set them on fire. He returned home with some ashes in Pillai’s memory.

The court of metropolitan magistrate Vijayshree Rathore allowed Delhi Police to go ahead with the narco test of Aaftab Ameen Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, and chopping her body into 35 pieces, after he agreed to undergo the test. Police had moved the application for the test on Saturday. Aaftab was told about the effects and implications of the test. Now, police will move an application at the Forensic Science Laboratory, Rohini, for getting the test conducted.

A plumber in Chhatarpur Pahadi said he saw both Shraddha Walkar and her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala together in the flat they had moved into. Till now, no one had confirmed seeing Walkar alive and living in the flat where she was allegedly murdered. On Thursday, police also identified the garbage van into which Poonawala claimed to have thrown the victim’s and his own blood-stained clothes. Plumber Rajesh said, "They came to the flat in the summer. The couple was happy and had their hands on each other’s shoulders when I noticed them on the lane. ” He said it was the last time he saw the woman.

A senior member of the FSL team which took Aaftab Poonawala around while trying to lift samples for evidence and DNA match has said that he was behaving like a “hardcore criminal” with absolutely no remorse. The official said he was way too “normal” about everything and that narco-analysis will further make the situation clear.