Shraddha Walkar murder: Police seek Aaftab Poonawala's narco test

New Delhi/Mumbai: Delhi Police has sought narco test of Mehrauli murder accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala even as its search for remaining body parts of his live-in partner continued for the second consecutive day in a forest area in Chhatarpur Wednesday, officials said.

Police said the couple used to have frequent arguments over financial issues and it is suspected that there was also a fight between them that resulted in Aaftab Poonawala killing 27-year-old Shradha Walkar on the evening of May 18.

According to the investigators, the narco test is necessary since Poonawala is changing his statements and not cooperating in the probe. Blood samples of Walkar's father were also collected for DNA analysis of the 13 body parts recovered so far.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight.

Walker's head, phone and the weapon used in the crime have not been recovered so far, police said, adding it is suspected that Poonawala allegedly tried to kill her in the past too and this is being investigated.

Poonawala will be produced in Saket Court on Thursday and police will seek further remand. Police officials also noted that he was confident during interrogation and showed no signs of remorse.

During the probe, more details came to light about Poonawala and Walkar's strained relationship, with friends and family alleging that the woman was unhappy with him and frequent fights used to happen over financial issues and suspicion of infidelity.

The police also found that post May 22, Rs 54,000 was transferred from Walkar's bank account to Poonawala and investigators are also scanning chats between the duo on social media.

Walker was insisting Poonawala to get all their belongings from the Mumbai house but apparently the couple did not have enough money to go back to Mumbai. This also further created tension between them, said a police official.

"The police have managed to recover some footages from a CCTV camera in the Chhatarpur area. Even though movement of suspect has been spotted but his actions are not clear. CCTV mapping will be used to connect visuals and ascertain the route taken by Poonawalla," the official said.

He said that it will be difficult to trace and recover all the CCTV footages from May since most of the systems do not have storage capacity.

As far as evidence is concerned, police said they have recovered some bones and a bag which are believed to be that of Walker. The bag has clothes and other items.

The police added that the accused was taken to the flat where the couple stayed as part of recreation of scene of crime to ascertain and establish how he went about executing the killing.

Another senior police officer who is part of the probing team said that Poonawala was taken to Mehrauli forest area for the second consecutive day as part of their ongoing searches to find the remaining chopped pieces of the victim's body.

"The accused was taken to multiple locations today (Wednesday) including the forest area where he had allegedly dumped the body parts of the victim," the officer said.

"We have applied for the narco test of Poonawala. We have not received permission from the court yet," he said.

The Narco test involves the intravenous administration of a drug (such as sodium pentothal, scopolamine and sodium amytal) that causes the subject to enter into various stages of anaesthesia. In the hypnotic stage, the subject becomes less inhibited and is more likely to divulge information, which would usually not be revealed in the conscious state.

According to norms, the consent of the accused is also necessary for conducting narco test.

"Since, he has been continuously changing his statements and is not cooperating in the probe, a narco test is necessary to verify his claims. The phone used by the victim and the weapon used to chop her body has not been recovered yet and further investigation is underway," the official said.

"We have noticed some suspicious bank transactions too and are verifying the details" the official added.

According to Mumbai police officials, Poonawala had appeared confident with no trace of remorse on his face when Manikpur police in Maharashtra had called him for questioning earlier this month.

"This happened after Walkar's family members filed a missing person's complaint when she was not traceable, the Manikpur police in Vasai town of Palghar called Poonawala for questioning twice - last month and on November 3 - and on both the occasions he told the police that Walkar had left his place and they were not staying together," assistant police inspector Sampatrao Patil told PTI.

"Poonawala was called for questioning for the first time in October but was then asked to go. Later on November 3, he was again called and his two-page statement was recorded. Both the times he looked very confident and there was no remorse on his face," Patil said.

The official said last month they visited Mehrauli police station in Delhi and questioned Poonawala. But that time also he kept saying the same thing, that he and Walkar were not staying together, and failed to revealed anything more, he said.

"We questioned him at the police station in Delhi also for hours, but never get suspicious about him," the official said.

Meanwhile, Walkar's close friend Rajat Shukla said it was possible that Poonawala might have been forcing her to convert (her religion).

"He (Poonawala) is not an ordinary man...Love Jihad, terrorism, or may be some mission in the entire case...an investigation should be done into the case and the truth should come out. He was misleading people but the reality has to come out now,” Shukla said.

"Poonawala did not seem to be a lover as such a person cannot commit a heinous crime like chopping the body of a person he loved into pieces, keeping them in a fridge and disposing them in a forest," he said.

Shukla also said they came to know in 2019 about Poonawala being in a live-in relationship with Walkar.

"But, it seems both of them were in a relationship since 2018 and kept it a secret. A few of our friends had also met Poonawala," he added.

On the other hand, a social activist, with whom call centre employee Walkar had participated in a Mumbai beach clean-up drive, has claimed the deceased suspected Poonawala of cheating on her and appeared quiet and aloof during the cleanliness campaigns.

Walkar also had financial problems and she and Poonawala used to have frequent fights, said activist Shreha Dhargalkar who runs an NGO.

Dhargalkar said Walkar, who had participated in the cleanliness drive, did not want to leave her call centre job at Malad in Mumbai.

Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar met each other through an online dating application. Later, they started working for same call centre in Mumbai and fell in love.

But their families objected to the relationship as they belong to different faiths, prompting the couple to move to Mehrauli earlier this year. Around mid-May, the couple had an argument over marriage, which escalated and Poonawala killed her.