According to a police official, Aaftab Poonawala, the accused in the brutal murder of his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar in May this year, moved his belongings from his flat in Maharashtra’s Palghar district to Delhi in 37 boxes in June and paid 20,000 for it.
According to police sources, Poonawala told Delhi Police that before moving to the national capital, he and Walkar fought over who would pay for moving the items from their house in Palghar’s Vasai area. A police official stated that they will investigate who used whose account to pay 20,000 for the transportation of furniture and other household items through the Goodluck Packers and Movers company in June.
According to the official, Poonawala shifted belongings in 37 packages from his flat at White Hills Society in Evershine City of Vasai to his residence in Delhi’s Chhatarpur area in June after a Delhi Police team recorded the statement of an employee of the packaging company in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on Sunday. The Delhi Police team is in Manikpur, Vasai, the victim’s hometown and where the couple lived before moving to the national capital.
Officials said the police also recorded the statement of the owner of the house where Walkar and Poonawala stayed in 2021, as well as the owner of the flat in the Mira Road area of Mumbai where the accused’s family members were staying until a fortnight ago (before becoming untraceable). In May, Walkar (27) was allegedly murdered by Poonawala in Delhi.
He dismembered her body and kept it in the fridge for nearly three weeks at their apartment before disposing of it over several days. Officials previously stated that the Delhi Police team recorded statements from four people in Palghar on Saturday, including two men from whom Walkar sought assistance after she was assaulted by Poonawala in 2020.
The Delhi Police sent teams to Maharashtra, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh on Friday to look for evidence in the case. According to officials, Walkar and Poonawala travelled to several locations after leaving Mumbai, including Himachal Pradesh, and police are investigating whether any developments during those trips prompted the accused to kill his partner.