Shraddha murder case: Neighbours say Aftab's family shifted to Mira Road during Diwali, left flat last week

Mumbai: On the outskirts of Mumbai, residents of a housing society were horrified to find that a family member who moved into their building last month had been arrested for killing and chopping his live-in girlfriend.

A building resident said they have not seen Aftab Poonawala (28), who is arrested by Delhi police for allegedly killing his 26-year-old live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, since the family shifted to the Mira Road society from Vasai.

“It is shocking to learn that Aftab cut up her body into 35 pieces, stored it in a 300-litre fridge for weeks at his residence and then dumped it in Delhi’s Mehrauli jungle over several days,” a resident said.

“The family shifted into a two-bedroom flat on the 11th floor of this building around Diwali, but the flat has been locked since last week,” he told PTI while showing the locked flat.

More from India

Soon after they moved into the building, the family members, including Aftab’s parents and brother, went on a short vacation and returned after the news of his grisly crime broke, he said.

“After this, we saw them (Aftab’s father Amin and mother Munira) twice while they were keeping the dustbin outside their flat. Amin Bhai, Munira and their (other) son are talkative. We have not seen them since the last week,” he said. Nobody in the housing society has seen Aftab, he said.

“After this (news about Aftab), the Poonawala family was in a state of depression. We don’t know where they are now,” the resident said.

A, B, C, and D are the four wings of the housing society. While the first three buildings have 21 stories, the Poonawala family's new home is in wing D, which has 18 floors and eight apartments per floor.

The building watchman said he was not aware of the Poonawala family as it is a fairly large housing society, and "it is not feasible to monitor" all the people all the time.

The local police claimed that the Poonawala family had left to an unidentified location and was now untraceable when this correspondent visited their home in Mira Road.

In her native Vasai, a group of Delhi Police officers on Friday recorded a close friend of Shraddha Walkar's statement. The four-person team went to the Manikpur police station and recorded Walkar's friend Laxman Nadar's statement.

According to Delhi police, Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar (27), on 18 May and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,

India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.