Delhi food blogger allegedly cut up girlfriend into pieces

BENGALURU, India – Delhi police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly killing his live-in partner, cutting her up into pieces and dumping them throughout the capital city.

An investigation into the murder has revealed gory details of a cover-up and a history of domestic violence, which the victim was reportedly trying to flee from before she was killed.

The accused, Aftab Amin Poonawala, a trained chef and food blogger, had been living in a rented house in Delhi with Ms Shraddha Walkar, a 27-year-old call centre employee, since May.

The couple met in 2019 through the dating app Bumble in their home town Mumbai. 

Mr Ankit Chauhan, a senior police official in the Delhi south district, said investigators have found a dozen body parts from the Mehrauli forest, on the fringes of the city, near the couple’s residence. 

“The recovered pieces have been sent for DNA testing. The search is on for the other missing parts,” Mr Chauhan said. 

The case came to light when her father, Mr Sharad Walkar, complained to the police in Mumbai that his daughter was missing.

Mr Walkar, who lives in Mumbai, was worried because her boyfriend of three years had been allegedly abusive. 

On Nov 9, the Mumbai police contacted their counterparts in Delhi.

“Initially, Aftab said they had had a fight, and she had left him. But after sustained interrogation, he confessed that he had murdered her,” Mr Chauhan said, estimating that the murder had taken place in mid-May. 

The police arrested Poonawala on Nov 12. Forensic teams combed the couple’s home, as well as neighbouring areas including the forest where they recovered the “severed bones”. He remains in police custody.

According to the latest police status note on the incident, Poonawala had strangled Ms Walkar, then cut her body into at least 35 pieces. Mr Chauhan said the accused “used the lean period of the night” to go out of the house and dump the body pieces in the forest over 16 to 18 days. 

Poonawala told the police that he was “inspired” by the American TV show Dexter, whose protagonist is a serial killer.

The police also said he used Google searches to find ways to clean the blood-stained floor, bought a refrigerator to keep pieces of the body, and used incense sticks to keep the foul smell from alerting neighbours.

The investigating team has not yet found clinching evidence like a murder weapon or the victim’s phone, or arrived at a clear motive for the gruesome murder. 

There have been mixed reports in the Indian media on what led to the alleged murder.

Some police sources have told the media the couple often fought over Ms Walkar wanting to be married, while others said she was trying to break up with the accused. The official police status report said that “at this juncture, it will be premature to provide any single theory which will stand the test of judicial scrutiny”. 

In the police complaint, Mr Walkar, 59, said that before his daughter moved in with her boyfriend, she was living in Mumbai with her younger brother and mother, who died in 2020.

Ms Walkar had been estranged from her father since 2019 because he had disapproved of her relationship. “I am a Hindu and the boy is a Muslim, and we do not believe in inter-religious marriage,” according to Mr Walkar’s complaint. 

He told the police that after her mother died, Ms Walkar had admitted to wanting to leave Poonawala because he hit her regularly, but moved with him to Delhi after he apologised. 

Some of Ms Walkar’s friends grew suspicious when her phone was switched off for over two months, even though her Instagram account remained active.

The police said Poonawala operated her social media account to cover up her disappearance. The food blogger and photographer has more than 28,000 followers on Instagram.

The horrifying details of the “Delhi fridge murder”, as some Indian channels are calling the case, have triggered divisive anti-Muslim rhetoric and sexist remarks from politicians blaming the victim for choosing a live-in relationship in defiance of her parents.

Live-in relationships are legal in India, with the courts extending the same rights to women in live-in relationships as they do to married women, including property rights to their child, and protection against domestic violence. 

But much of Indian society still sees such relationships as taboo. 

The alleged murder has also revived debate about pervasive domestic violence in the country.

One in three women in the 18 to 49 age group in the country faces partner violence, which only grew sharply when women were cooped up in homes with their abusers during Covid-19-related lockdowns, according to official data from the 2021 National Family Health Survey.