Aftab kept account of Shraddha's chopped body pieces and where he threw them, say police sources

Delhi Police is still trying to put together the grisly murder of Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawalla. A court has extended Aftab's custody for another four days. During a special hearing, Aftab reportedly told the judge that he killed Shraddha in the heat of the moment, calling it a 'mistake'. 

The latest update in the Delhi murder case says Aftab apparently kept an account of the chopped body pieces and where he disposed them off. Police have seized 'murder notes' from Aftab, sources told India Today.

Big disclosure in #Shraddha murder case; Aftab kept an account of chopped body pieces. @AkshayDongare_ joins @GauravCSawant for more on this. #5iveLive pic.twitter.com/DhzkqnM6IO

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) November 22, 2022

• Aftab's lawyer reportedly told Saket court in Delhi that the accused has not confessed to being under the influence when he murdered Shraddha. 
• Aftab's lawyer also says that the Poonawalla family is not missing and that he will get in touch with them in a few days. 
• Police are set to conduct a polygraph test on Aftab before a narco-analysis test. Police believe the accused is trying to mislead them.
• Delhi Police have formed 14 teams to investigate Shraddha Walkar's murder. 
• Aftab reportedly disposed off the weapon used to chop Shraddha's body in the forests of DLF Phase 2 and 3 in Gurugram. He reportedly went there by a cab.
• Police are trying to make a route map of all the places Aftab visited starting May 19. Aftab claims to have killed Shraddha on May 18.   

Delhi | Saket court extends police custody of Aftab Poonawala for the next 4 days in Shraddha Walkar murder case. He was produced before the court in a special hearing.

(File photo) pic.twitter.com/zxJNST6MNj

— ANI (@ANI) November 22, 2022

Aftab Amin Poonwalla is accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar in Delhi. After the murder, he's confessed to having dismembered her body into 35 pieces and disposed off of them over a span of several days and even months at various locations in and around Delhi. Aftab says he killed Shraddha in May but the exact date and time of her death are not yet ascertained. 

Delhi Police's biggest priority is to find evidence to support Aftab's confessions to them. The gap of nearly 6 months between when the murder reportedly took place and Aftab's arrest has made the investigation difficult for the police. Currently, Delhi Police has dispersed teams to Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana to find out the details. 

'Heat of the moment' VS premeditated murder:

• Aftab's latest confession in Saket court that he acted in the 'heat of the moment' when he strangled Shraddha to death has multiple ramifications. 
• If the murder is proven to be committed in a fit of rage, Aftab could get away with a more lenient punishment.
• However, even if the murder is proven to not have been planned, Aftab's gruesome actions to get rid of the body and the evidence will be taken into consideration. 
• Regardless, police are trying to ascertain whether Shraddha's murder, which incidentally took place just days after moving into the Delhi flat, was pre-planned or not. They are also trying to investigate whether there is anyone else involved other than Aftab. 
• One of the famous court rulings which faced the same two options was KM Nanavati case in 1959. The movie Rustom is also based on the same case.      

What comes next: Delhi Police has got permission to subject Aftab to a polygraph and a narco-analysis test.

• Delhi Police is using controversial interrogation means to separate the facts from lies as they believe Aftab is trying to mislead them to lose evidence. 
• Police have found CCTV footage from October of Aftab returning home late in the night with a bag pack and suspect that the murder may have taken place between May and June rather than on May 18 as the accused claims. 

#WATCH | Shraddha murder case: CCTV visuals of Aftab carrying bag at a street outside his house surface from October 18 pic.twitter.com/S2JJUippEr

— ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2022

• Police also suspect Aftab may have disposed off of some other evidence and even body parts as recently as October. 
• They believe that Aftab's near-perfect recollection of the place in Mehrauli forest where he reportedly disposed off the body parts is reason enough to suspect he may have visited the place recently and not six months ago. 
• Aftab has reportedly been inconsistent with his claims about what happened to Shraddha's phone. 

What the police has found: Aftab reportedly bought a new refrigerator on May 19 using Shraddha's phone number. Aftab has told the police that he stored Shraddha's body parts in the fridge after murdering her. 

• He also spent some Rs 20,000 to move 37 boxes from Mumbai to Delhi in June. The couple had reportedly also fought on who will bring their belongings from Mumbai to Delhi before the murder. 
• Delhi Police have reportedly found an arm bone in the pond in Chhatarpur. 

What to watch out for: Delhi Police has found more human body parts suspected to belong to Shraddha. They recently found pieces of skull and jawbone from Mehrauli forest area. 

• All the recovered body parts have been sent for DNA sampling to ascertain whether they belong to Shraddha or not. 
• Moreover, police have reportedly found a root canal done on the recovered jawbone and are reaching out to Shraddha's dentist from Maharashtra to ascertain whether the procedure was performed by the said dentist.
• Police are also trying to see if Shraddha's head was disposed off of in a pond in Chhatarpur. But the sewer flowing into the pond and muck has made it difficult for the police to scour the area.   
• A plea in Delhi High Court has sought the transfer of the case from the Delhi Police to the CBI. The plea by an advocate also states that Delhi Police has been lax in securing the crime scenes from the media and public leading to contamination of the place of incident on a daily basis. 

Other latest details that emerged in Aftab and Shraddha's relationship:

• A Mumbai-based TV actor Imran Nazir Khan has revealed that he knew Shraddha and she had confided in him some two years ago that Aftab was a drug addict.

• Shraddha's friends and former co-workers have told the media that the victim was often physically and mentally abused by Aftab. In 2020, she was also hospitalised for the abuse and even registered a verbal complaint with the police against Aftab on the matter, according to her friends. 

Shraddha met Aftab on Bumble in 2019. They started living together soon after. However, Shraddha's parents were opposed to their interfaith relationship. Shraddha had also confided in her mother about the abuse, but her mother passed away in 2020. She had been estranged from her father, a reason it took months for the family to discover that she was missing. 

Just before her murder, Shraddha and Aftab decided to shift from Mumbai to give their relationship another go. They went to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for a few months before renting the Chhatarpur flat in Delhi. Aftab says he strangled Shraddha to death days after moving into the Delhi apartment after an argument broke out.