Delhi man kills live-in partner: Inspired by TV show 'Dexter', how the 'Indian Predator' hid the murder for 6 months?

A 28-year-old man allegedly strangled his live-in partner, chopped her body into nearly 35 pieces, kept them in a fridge for almost three weeks and then dumped them across the city over several days. 

Details of the killing and its grisly aftermath came to light almost six months later with the arrest of Aftab Ameen Poonawala. Some chopped body parts of the woman -- Shraddha Walkar -- have been found and police are looking for the murder weapon.

Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar fell in love while they were working at a call centre in Mumbai. But their families objected to the relationship as they were from different faiths, prompting the couple to move to South Delhi's Mehrauli earlier this year.

How Aftab hid the murder for six months?

According to the police, Aftab bought a 300-litre fridge purposely to keep the severed body parts and used incense sticks and room fresheners to suppress the foul smell emanating from the corpse.

After killing his live-in partner in mid-May this year, the accused chopped her body into as many as 35 parts and then scattered them in several areas across the city. He used to step around 2 am every day to dump the severed body parts. 

NDTV quoted investigators saying that he was “inspired” by American crime show ‘Dexter’, which is based on serial-killing. In ‘Dexter’, the protagonist is a forensics expert who leads a parallel life as a vigilante serial killer. Aftab was adept at using a meat knife as he was trained as chef, police said.

What led to Aftab’s arrest?

According to the police, the woman was not in proper talking terms with her family due to their differences over her relationship with Poonawala.

According to a complaint filed by the victim's father in Mumbai, one of her friends informed them in September that the woman's phone had been unreachable for two months. The complaint alleged that Poonawala used to beat up Walkar on occasions and that she had informed her family about it earlier.

"The woman's father called the accused up but was told that the couple had parted ways sometime back. Unable to contact his daughter, the man then filed a missing complaint," Chauhan said.

Investigation revealed that he had strangled Shraddha to death after an argument five months ago, on May 18, as she'd been insisting they get married.