In a gruesome tale of murder, a man allegedly strangled his girlfriend, chopped her body into 35 pieces, and then stored them in a refrigerator, and later scattered them in Delhi’s Mehrauli forest in a span of several days.
Aftab Ameen Poonawala, 28, had allegedly killed his live-in partner, 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar, on 18 May after an altercation occurred between them as she was insisting on marriage, Delhi Police sources told NDTV.
The officials reportedly said Aftab, a trained chef, was “inspired” by the American crime series Dexter.
The couple had met at a call centre in Mumbai where Shraddha worked for a multinational company. However, they left Mumbai after her family disapproved of their relationship and moved to Delhi in April-end or May first week, the Delhi Police said, as per NDTV.
In the National Capital, the duo rented a flat in Chhatarpur and started working in a call centre for a multinational company.
They “had an argument in mid-May over marriage, which escalated and he strangled her,” Ankit Chauhan, Additional DCP-I, South district, was quoted as saying by NDTV.
NDTV sources said that Aftab, who had chopped her body into bits, bought a 300-litre fridge where he kept the parts that he then dumped at different areas of the Mehrauli forest over the next 18 days.
The accused reportedly used to light agarbatti or incense sticks to subdue the stench of the body.
The crime came to light after Shraddha’s father came to Delhi and found her flat locked. He then filed a kidnapping complaint with the Mehrauli Police.
The accused has been arrested and sent to five-day police custody.
Condemning the brutal murder, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal has called for strict punishment for the accused.
The horrific murder has evoked memories of other such heinous crimes involving love and relationships that have sent shockwaves across the nation. Here is a list of some of these.
Tandoor Kand
Infamous as the Tandoor Kand, On 2 July 1995, Sushil Sharma – the then youth Congress leader – had shot dead his partner Naina Sahni in Delhi over suspicions of her having an affair.
Chopping her body parts, he then tried to dispose of her body by burning it in a tandoor (clay oven) on the roof of a popular restaurant that was managed by his friend.
Sushil Sharma was arrested for killing his partner Naina Sahni in Delhi in 1995. AFP File Photo
The police in the area reached the spot when they saw smoke emanating from the tandoor and found Naina’s dismembered and half-burnt body. Sharma who had gone missing was arrested within a week.
He was sentenced to death for the killing which was later turned into a life term.
The former politician walked out of jail in December 2018 after Delhi High Court ordered his release.
Talking to The Hindu then, Sharma had admitted he was “over possessive” about Naina and possibly “put her in a position to lie, if she ever did.”
KM Nanavati case
The Nanavati case was the first ‘trial by media’ in the country notes ThePrint. On 27 April 1959, the then Naval commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati shot dead his English wife Sylvia’s businessman lover, Prem Bhagwan Ahuja in a Bombay flat.
Nanavati fired three shots that killed Ahuja. He then went to a police station and confessed his crime, as per Business Standard.
He was initially declared not guilty by a jury, whose verdict was dismissed by the Bombay High Court. In 1960, Nanavati was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1964, he was pardoned by the then Bombay Governor and Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit, reports Business Standard.
The case marked the end of jury trials in India.
Shivani Bhatnagar murder
Shivani Bhatnagar, a principal correspondent with Indian Express, was found murdered in her Patparganj, East Delhi, residence in January 1999.
Indian Express reported that there were strangulation marks on her neck and 10 stab wounds on the chest and abdomen. A piece of electric wire, two knives that were from her kitchen, and the broken handle of a frying pan were found close to her body.
Shivani, who was 31-year-old at the time of her murder, was survived by her husband, Rakesh Bhatnagar, and a son.
On 24 March 2008, a Delhi court held former senior police officer Ravi Kant Sharma guilty of hiring hitmen to murder Shivani as he feared she would expose their “intimate” relations and ruin his reputation.
Sri Bhagwan Sharma – son of a former Haryana police officer, Pradeep Sharma – who had killed the journalist, Satya Prakash, Ved alias Kalu were arrested in the case.
In August 2002, the former IPS officer was suspended and in September of that year he surrendered in Ambala and was sent to police custody.
After spending nine years in Tihar Jail, RK Sharma — who had once served as an officer on special duty in the Prime Minister’s office — along with Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash was acquitted by the Delhi High Court in 2011 in the murder case.
The court had upheld the conviction and life sentence of the hitman, Pradeep.
Neeraj Grover murder
Neeraj Grover, a senior executive at TV production firm Synergy Adlabs, was stabbed to death at Kannada actor Maria Susairaj’s apartment allegedly by her fiance, Emile Jerome Mathew, an ex-navy officer in Mumbai on 7 May 2008.
As per NDTV, Jerome had flown from Kochi naval base to Mumbai on 7 May and went to Maria’s flat as the night before he heard a man’s voice in the background when he had called the actor. “Consumed by jealousy” he killed Neeraj using a knife from Maria’s kitchen.
Neeraj Grover was murdered by Emile Jerome Mathew in Mumbai in 2008. News18 File Photo
The couple then chopped the body into pieces, stuffed it in two bags and drove to Manor jungles in Thane to burn the body.
On 2 July 2011, a sessions court sentenced Jerome to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Maria was only convicted for the destruction of evidence and awarded a three-year jail term.
Maria’s lawyers had claimed Jerome had threatened her into helping him to get rid of Neeraj’s body.
A crime thriller helmed by Ram Gopal Varma, Not A Love Story, was inspired by the Neeraj Grover murder case.
Shakereh Namazi murder case
In May 1991, Shakereh Namazi was buried alive in the backyard of her residence in Bengaluru by her second husband Murli Manohar Misra alias Swami Shraddhananda who had eyes on her property and wealth.
Shraddhananda had drugged Namazi by lacing her tea with sedatives and then put her in a coffin and buried his wife in her backyard.
Namazi, who was the granddaughter of former Dewan of Mysore, was 40 when she was killed.
Shraddhananda was earlier sentenced to death for murdering Namazi, however, in 2008, the Supreme Court commuted it to life imprisonment without remission.
Bomb hoax caller case
In September 2015, MG Gokul had sent a series of WhatsApp messages to the terminal manager at Bengaluru airport, warning that three flights — Lufthansa LH-755, Saudi Arabian Airlines SV-5643, Air France AF-191 — were to be blown up by Islamic State.
Similar messages and calls went to the Delhi and Mumbai airports from the same number.
The hoax call had led to delays in seven international flights from Bengaluru and Delhi airports.
In July 2015, Gokul had clubbed Anuradha to death with an idol while she was drunk and was successful in passing the murder off as a suicide.
In what turned out to be nothing short of a Bollywood script, the sales executive had tried to frame his neighbour Saju Jose, a techie, in the bomb hoax calls to marry Jose’s wife who was his batchmate in college.
With inputs from agencies
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