Shraddha’s killer shocks cops with new revelations
The police probe into the gruesome killing of Shraddha Walkar on Thursday turned its focus on the accused Aftab Poonawala’s two accomplices, Rahul and Badri, besides the “surprisingly high” water bill he incurred despite the provision of 20,000 litres being free in Delhi.
Aftab, meanwhile, continued to shock the interrogators with new revelations — the latest being the claim that he burnt Shraddha’s face in such a manner that it could not be identified even if the chopped body parts were to be found.
A team of the Delhi Police again searched Mehrauli’s forest area for over five hours on Thursday as her head, torso and the weapons used by Aftab are yet to be found.
The police are expected to subject him to a more sustained grilling as a Saket court on Thursday permitted it to question Aftab for five more days in its custody and also allowed his “narco analysis” test to be conducted to unravel the case.
In a related development, a section of lawyers on Thursday evening at a court premises shouted slogans against Aftab and demanded death penalty for him.
Sources said Aftab’s statements were found to have discrepancies during interrogation so the Delhi Police is now looking for two of his accomplices for gathering more evidence.
The duo had helped Aftab and Shraddha get the rented room in Chhatarpur.
During investigation, it was revealed that they met them in Himachal Pradesh where both Aftab and Shraddha had spent many days at Badri’s property before moving into their new home in Delhi.
While sources said the Delhi Police will also take Aftab to Uttarakhand and Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh, among other places for collecting evidence.
They pointed out that the landlord has told the police about the `300 water bill, considered pretty high given the fact that 20,000 litres are free for every household and Aftab had been staying alone after killing Shraddha.
The police will inquire about it from Aftab, sources said. He turned up the tap to drown out the noise from chopping body parts, to wash blood off the body and to clean the house could be the reasons, they reasoned.
Going by Aftab’s confession, sources said Aftab first disposed of Shraddha’s liver and intestine, while he kept the head in the freezer for quite some time. Police have not yet traced Shraddha’s skull.
Sources said Aftab had charred his live-in partner’s face to hide her identity. He had first chopped her body into 35 pieces, then burnt her face in such a way that it becomes unidentifiable even if the body parts were discovered. During the interrogation, Aftab reportedly revealed that he had learnt about all this on the internet, and also about how to hide the body from everyone’s reach,” the sources said.
Aftab was produced before the Saket Court through video conference at 4pm. The Delhi Police had filed an application requesting the court to produce Poonawala virtually due to his security concerns.
Metropolitan magistrate Aviral Shukla said according to the application submitted by police, the accused faced threats from “some religious organisations and miscreants. “ I would request everyone to abide by the rule of law. Some may feel that justice is not done. But justice will be dispensed. I am aware of the sensitivity of the matter, media coverage...Public traction...,” the judge said while allowing the application. The court passed the order while allowing police plea in the matter.
The South Delhi police have contacted East Delhi police in a bid to match the DNA sample of chopped body parts including a human head which the latter had recovered earlier in June. According to the sources, the East Delhi Police had found a chopped head and hand in the Trilokpuri area of Pandav Nagar police station area of the national capital in June this year, which was nearly a month after Shraddha was murdered (on May 18). In the East Delhi case, the police were not able to ascertain whose body parts they were because of the tampered state of the recovered body parts.