Must have walked past Shraddha's body parts several times: Chhatarpur Pahadi resident

The brutal murder of 26-year-old Shraddha Walker allegedly by her live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawala, has run shockwaves through the country. But the murder feels like a personal tragedy to Charan Kaur, a middle-aged woman in Delhi’s Chhatarpur Pahadi area, who used to frequent the Mehrauli forest for firewood – the same place where Aftab has confessed to having dumped Shraddha’s dismembered body parts.

Shocked to the bone and terrified, Charan says that she used the same route to the forest as that used by Aftab and the very thought that she must have walked past the remains of Shraddha makes her go numb.

Also read: Shraddha murder: Aftab’s behaviour was normal, says neighbour

“Since the day I saw the images of the forest area, my body has gone numb. I don’t even step out of my house because of fear. I used the same route in the forest to collect firewood every morning. The mere thought of walking past the remains of a human body makes me choke. I will need months to recover from the shock,” Charan said.

Charan says it is not the fear of police that grips her, but rather the gruesome nature of the crime.

“I am not afraid of appearing before the police as a witness, as I have nothing to hide. I regularly went to the forest to collect firewood and may have walked past the dismembered portions of Shraddha Walker’s body umpteen times. Since Monday when the news of the murder surfaced, I have grown fearful. For the first two days since the news broke, I didn’t even come out of my room and isolated myself in a corner. Now you can imagine what kind of impact it had on my life. The entire imagery of the forest, the route and the place from where I collect the wood is extremely fresh in my memory,” she said.

Also read: Aftab transferred ₹54,000 from Shraddha’s bank account after killing her

Aftab has confessed to strangling Shraddha to death on May 18 and later dismembering her body into 35 pieces. He stored the body parts in a fridge before disposing of them in the Mehrauli forest.

The search for the victim’s remaining body parts continued for the third consecutive day in the Chhatarpur forest area on Thursday (November 17) even as a Delhi court extended Aftab’s police custody by five days. According to various reports, Delhi Police has recovered 13 bones, believed to be Shraddha’s remains from the area so far.

Chhatarpur Pahadi is barely 2 km from Delhi’s Qutub Minar metro station. The area has a sizeable number of members from Sikh and Valmiki communities. Although implicit, there is a palpable social division between the two communities.

Residents who saw Aftab described him as an introvert who would keep to himself and show up to take food parcels.

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

Parmet Kaur, a 29-year-old woman, claims to have seen Aftab on three or four occasions. “I have seen him three or four times at night. He would always use a cab. The cab would drop him right next to his gate. His interactions with people were extremely limited. I have also heard that he would often come to collect his food parcels from Swiggy or Zomato delivery boys,” she told The Federal.