Aftab transferred ₹54,000 from Shraddha's bank account after killing her

Aftab Amin Poonawala, the 28-year-old food blogger, who allegedly killed his live-in girlfriend and disposed of her body by chopping it into 35 pieces, at first told the police that he was not in touch with Shradhha after she had left home following their fight on May 22.

The Maharashtra police had called him twice, once in October and then again on November 3. Aftab, however, maintained that Shraddha had left the flat and was not living with him anymore. He did not display any sign of nervousness or restlessness when they had questioned him, said the Maharashtra police, according to media reports.

Aftab, who is the accused in the Shraddha Walkar murder case, told the cops she had left the home only with her mobile phone. According to an ANI report, while Aftab did his best to scrub out every physical evidence of his gruesome murder of Shradhha in his flat, he was ultimately cornered when his “digital footprints” gave him away. That was the first major breakthrough in the case, the police told the media.

Also read: Shraddha murder case: Accused was inspired by Dexter, an American crime drama

Though Aftab had killed Shraddha back in May, and had disposed off pieces of her body, the ghastly crime came to light only in November. His first lie was caught when the police on checking the couple’s bank statements found that on May 26, there was a transaction of ₹54,000 from Shraddha’s net banking account to Aftab’s account. This piece of evidence contradicted Aftab’s initial statement that he was not in touch with Shradhha after May 22.

The location of the bank transfer was Mehrauli. The next breakthrough for the police came when a chat message on Shraddha’s Instagram account on May 31. The location was traced to Mehrauli. It is then on police interrogation, Aftab broke down and confessed that he had killed Shraddha after an argument on May 18.

Also read: Delhi man kills live-in partner, chops body into 35 pieces, dumps them over 18 days

As he confessed the details of his gory crime, of chopping up his girlfriend and storing the parts in his fridge, and disposing it off in the night at a nearby forest area, he admitted that he had planned to kill Shraddha a week before she was killed.

Meanwhile, Aftab’s family seem to be untraceable, said media reports. A fortnight before his arrest, Aftab had helped his family shift out from their home in Vasai.

Also read: Shraddha murder: Aftab read about human anatomy, googled how to clean blood