Shraddha Walkar case: How Aaftab planned disposal of body without leaving e-trail? Premeditated murder angle on focus

The 12-day investigation into the sensational Shraddha Walkar murder case has found that the accused Aaftab Poonawala did meticulous planning to dispose of the body parts. 

To make sure that no electronic trail is left behind, Aaftab not only used to turn off the location of his phone but also leave it at the rented accommodation in Delhi’s Chhatarpur before going out to dispose of the body parts, reported Times of India. 

Aaftab allegedly strangled Shraddha to death on the night of May 18 and then dismembered her body into over 30 pieces, which he disposed of over the next several days or even months, before the matter finally came to light and he was arrested in November. 

Aaftab’s plan included ensuring that he is not caught in the CCTV cameras of the areas, when he is going out to dispose of the body parts. Most of the cameras in the area had storage capacity ranging from few days to a month at the most. 

As per Times of India report, the first breakthrough came when they recovered an October footage in which Aaftab could be seen venturing out of his home around 4 am. 

This time lapse between the murder and disposal of the body was deliberate, with Aaftab assuming that CCTV recordings would get overwritten with newer footage, according to a police official quoted by Times of India. 

Shraddha’s police complaint against Aaftab in November 2020, in which she alleged that her live-in partner has threatened to “kill her and cut her into pieces” has eerie similarities with the fate she allegedly met with in May 2022. 

With Aaftab undergoing polygraph test, which will be followed by a narco analysis test, cops are now trying to ascertain whether the murder was done in a “fit of rage” or it was a pre-planned killing. 

Aaftab had told a Delhi court earlier this week that he hit Shraddha because she provoked her. She also said that what he did was in "heat of the moment" and his actions were not deliberate. Earlier, he told the police how he strangled Shraddha to death on May 18 and then dismembered her body into 35 pieces, kept them in a 300-litre fridge, and then disposed of them over a period of nearly three weeks. 

The cops are also trying to ascertain whether the murder was planned in Himachal Pradesh, where the couple had went for a vacation in April this year, and also whether Chhatarpur Pahadi was a pre-decided location as it was close to a forested area where body parts could be easily disposed of. 

“We are also probing the role of Badri, a common friend who had helped Shraddha and Aaftab find the Chhatarpur Pahadi accommodation and who is yet to be traced, whether he was involved in a conspiracy with the accused,” a sources was quoted by Times of India as saying.