Did another woman trigger Shraddha's murder? Delhi Police to seek Aftab's profile details from 'Bumble' dating app

The father of Shraddha Walkar, the 26-year-old woman who was murdered and cut into pieces by her live-in partner in Delhi’s Mehrauli, has demanded a death penalty for the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala and suspected a “love jihad” angle behind the incident. 

“We demand death penalty for Aaftab. I am confident that further investigation on Delhi Police is progressing in the right direction,” said Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar. 

“I suspected a love jihad angle…I was never in touch with Aftab. I filed the first complaint in Vasai,” he added. 

Speaking in Begusarai, Union Minister Giriraj Singh also called the murder of ‘Hindu’ girl Shraddha by ‘Muslim’ youth Aaftab unfortunate and alleged there is a ‘love jihad angle in the case.

On the other hand, Delhi Police will soon write to the ‘Bumble’ dating app seeking details of Poonawala’s profile to find out the details of women with whom he was in touch with. 

According to sources quoted by ANI, Delhi Police wants to ascertain if any of the women Aftab dated on the app could be a possible reason behind Shraddha’s alleged murder. 

"Delhi Police may write to Bumble to get details of Aftab’s profile to find details of women who visited him in his house when Shraddha’s body was still in the refrigerator. Police are looking at the possibility if any of these women could be a reason behind this killing," the police sources said.

Police said Poonawala brought another woman to his apartment days after the murder, with the body parts of Shraddha still in a fridge. The police are investigating whether he brought more women home while he had Shraddha's body parts in the apartment and whether any of them were a trigger for the murder. 

Earlier today, the Delhi Police took Poonawala to the jungle areas of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur where he had allegedly dumped Shraddha’s body parts. A senior police official said the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala will be taken to some other places in the city besides the Chhattarpur jungle area as part of their probe into the murder.

Poonawala had told the police during investigation that he killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar after a quarrel over marriage and the idea of chopping her body into 35 pieces was inspired by "Dexter", an American crime TV series.

He bought a fridge to preserve the body parts and used to step out past midnight to dispose them of. The accused meticulously planned which ones to dispose of first depending upon which part starts decomposing at the earliest, the police said.

According to police officials, 13 body parts were found after the accused pinpointed the areas where he had thrown them, but only after their forensic examination, it can be confirmed if they belong to the victim. They are yet to find the murder weapon.