Delhi Shraddha Murder Case: What we know about ‘Dexter-inspired’ murder case so far

The saga of a 28-year-old man named Aaftab Amin Poonawala in India’s capital Delhi who killed his live-in partner Shraddha Vikas Walker brutally in May is sure to send chills down anyone's spine. Delhi police is still investigating the case and in the latest development has reportedly moved a lower court seeking permission to conduct a polygraph test on the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala. This comes after media reports citing police said Aaftab was misleading the investigation by his answers during investigation. The police reportedly said Aaftab had confessed of killing his live-in partner and dismembering her body into 35 pieces. Now, the court is likely to hear the plea on Tuesday, reported ANI news agency. The agency citing sources said Aaftab will be produced before the court once his five-day police custody expires.

Earlier multiple media reports said the court extended the police custody of the accused. Before the plea for polygraph test Delhi police had also sought to conduct narco test on Aaftab to investigate the gruesome killing, the reports added. According to reports, the court had allowed the application seeking permission for a narco analysis test on Aaftab. The accused was connected to the court proceedings through video conferencing. Aaftab was not physically produced before the court and his consent for the test was sought through video conferencing.

When came to light, the case shocked the nation. It still continues to do so we learn more each day about the gory details emerging out of the ongoing investigation. The 26-year-old Walker was allegedly strangled to death by Poonawala, who then chopped her body into 35 parts and bought a refrigerator to keep them. Over the span of two to three months the accused scattered Shraddha's body parts in the city’s Mehrauli forest and surrounding areas and reportedly said that he was “inspired” by the American crime show ‘Dexter’, in which the protagonist is a forensics expert who leads a double life as a serial killer.

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As per reports, Poonawala and Walker met in Mumbai and started dating soon after. Shraddha's family had not approved of their inter-faith relationship. Media reports said the couple later moved to Delhi in the first week of May and were living at a friend’s house and later they rented an apartment in South Delhi’s Chhattarpur area. Aaftab during the interrogation said Walker reportedly began pressuring him for marriage when their relationship became tense which led to frequent fights.

On May 18, following an argument, Poonawala allegedly strangled Walker and dismembered her in order to dispose off the body. The accused had allegedly bought a 300-litre fridge to keep the victim's body in at least 35 pieces. According to police sources cited in media, Poonawala was a trained chef from a private institute in Mumbai where he was also reportedly trained in cutting meat. It supposedly took him two days to cut Walker’s body and Poonawala claims that he did it with a hacksaw with multiple blades.

However, the police are yet to recover the tool allegedly used to commit the crime. Furthermore, the accused claims that after “chopping the body”, he “washed the blood from them and stuffed them in some plastic bags.” Reportedly, all these plastic bags were then kept in the fridge.

The 28-year-old would then step out of the house around 2 am to dispose off the victim’s body one part at a time in the Mehrauli forest and surrounding areas, said media reports. The police reportedly said that during this time, Poonawala would burn incense sticks to keep the foul smell away and wipe the floor with detergent.

“After almost two three months, he discarded the head and the torso,” said a police officer to the Indian Express. Meanwhile, the accused reportedly had also researched human anatomy, Googled ways to clean human blood from the floor with some chemicals, and disposed off the stained clothes.

The local police have also claimed that the accused disclosed that weeks after the alleged murder he became active on the dating app Bumble through which he had met Walker, and even started dating another girl and had even visited the apartment where Walker had allegedly been killed.

The arrest was made after Walker’s father, Vikash Madan Walker, was led to Delhi from Maharashtra’s Palghar district after lodging a missing person complaint in Mumbai. During the interrogation, Aaftab reportedly confessed to the crime and the police had also recovered some bones from their rented apartment in Delhi.

He had also allegedly impersonated the victim on social media for weeks and spoken to her friends while continuing to live in the same flat. Walker’s father had come to Delhi after Shraddha’s friend had said that her phone had been switched off for weeks back in September, according to media reports. On November 8, Vikas Madan lodged a complaint at the Mehrauli police station after which the police filed a case of murder and got five-day custody of the accused who eventually confessed.