Shraddha murder case: How Rs 54,000 bank transaction led to Aaftab Poonawalla's arrest

The Delhi Police have found substantial evidence-- physical and digital-- in the horrid Shraddha Walkar case so far. The accused in the case, Aaftab Amin Poonawalla, tried to put the murder of Shraddha under wraps by removing physical evidence. However, he left digital evidence which led the police to trace this case. 

The biggest clincher in the case so far is the bank statement of the couple’s account which indicated a transaction worth Rs 54,000 from Shraddha’s net banking app to Aaftab’s account dated May 26. The location where the transaction took place was incidentally the Mehrauli police station area. 

This busted Aaftab’s claim that Shraddha was not contactable after May 22 and that he had no contact with her. The police further found a chat from Shraddha’s Instagram account dated May 31, which also traced back to the Mehrauli police station area. 

He told the Delhi Police that he kept posting on Walkar’s Instagram profile after the murder took place to avert any suspicion or questions about her whereabouts. Going by Aaftab’s confession, he murdered Shraddha on May 18, allegedly impersonated her on Instagram, and was active on her account till June 9. Apart from this, Poonawalla also searched Google to find ways to dispose of the dead body in a non-suspicious manner and the exact type of chopper he would have to use to dismember the body. 

The police have written to the online dating app Bumble and sought details of his profile and the women who visited his place after the murder. Officials suspect that Poonawalla’s match from the dating app could be his motivation behind Walkar’s murder. Bumble has said that it will cooperate with the authorities in the case. 

Bumble said, “We will continue to follow closely and remain available to law enforcement should they request our support. The safety and wellbeing of our members is our top priority and we have a dedicated global team serving their needs.” 

Also watch: Who Is Aftab Amin Poonawalla? Man Who Chopped Up Live-in Partner

Delhi live-in partner murder case: Physical evidence so far 

Apart from this, the statements of the late Shraddha Walkar’s father Vikas Walkar, Aaftab and Shraddha’s neighbours, and Shraddha’s friends also have been recorded. Her father has accused Aaftab of beating Shraddha regularly when she was with him in one of his statements to police. 

Walkar demanded the death penalty for the accused and did not rule out the much-talked-about ‘love jihad’ angle in the case. He told the news agency ANI, “I suspect love jihad. We demand that Aaftab be sentenced to death. I have faith in the Delhi Police as the investigation is moving in the right direction. Shraddha was close to her uncle and didn’t talk to me much. I was never in touch with Aaftab. I lodged the first complaint in the case at Vasai (Mumbai).”

He added that he did not know that his daughter shifted to Delhi and that her friend told him about the same. Walkar also mentioned that he thought she was in Bengaluru and Aaftab had ample time on his hands to remove the evidence. 

Besides this, the police also recorded the statement of Dr. Anil Singh who treated Aaftab after he got injured while chopping Shraddha’s body into pieces.  He said that he was restless and aggressive while talking and left when questioned about how he got injured. 

The investigating team has found the bill of the fridge allegedly used by Aaftab Poonawalla to store his girlfriend’s dismembered body, the bill of a small saw used to chop her body into 35 pieces, and statements of the retailer, who successfully identified Poonawalla. 

They have found around 13 bones from the Mehrauli forest area, all of which have been sent for forensic testing to ascertain whether they belong to Shraddha. Recovering the bones is extremely crucial as it can tell the time and cause of the death. 

Delhi murder case: The Road to Justice

While the police have made substantial headway in the case, the road to justice is still far as there is much more evidence to be unearthed to make this a watertight case. This includes a murder weapon, Shraddha’s clothes at the time of the murder, the victim’s mobile phone, scientific evidence to indicate body parts were stored in the fridge, missing body parts, evidence to back the time of the incident, and the lack of witnesses when it comes to the fight between Shraddha and Aaftab.

(With agency inputs)

Also read: Delhi murder case: Aaftab Poonawala allegedly tried killing Shraddha 10 days before, but changed plans