While the country is still reeling from the shock of the horrific murder of Shraddha Walkar in Delhi’s Mehrauli, the Azamgarh police in Uttar Pradesh have recovered a mutilated body of a woman in Pashchim ka Pura area of Ahraula in Azamgarh district on Tuesday. According to media reports, the police fished out the chopped hands, legs, and body of the woman from inside a well located on Durvasa-Gahaji Road in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district. The head of the corpse is still missing and hasn’t been found.
Azamgarh SP Anurag Arya said in a video byte, “Identity of the killed woman has not been ascertained so far. Efforts are being made to find out her identity after which details of age and her whereabouts would become clear.”
He added that forensic experts and the dog squad have been called and that senior officers were also probing the incident. Other evidence is also being collected from the scene after recovering the mutilated body, he claimed, assuring that the matter would be resolved very soon.
According to media reports, some locals alerted the police on Tuesday morning after they noticed the body in a well about 150 meters away from Pashchim ka Pura village. After receiving information, Ahraula police arrived at the sport and reported the incident to Azamgarh authorities.
The police said that during the initial investigation, only an undergarment was found on the body while legs and hands were found floating near it inside the well.
Notably, OpIndia reported another similar incident today wherein a dead body of an unidentified man in his 30s was found stuffed in an abandoned red-coloured suitcase outside the Railway Station in Jalandhar, Punjab at around 6 am on Tuesday, November 15. A worker had noticed the bag and alerted the railway officials.
The incidents come close on the heels of the ghastly murder of 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar who was strangulated and brutally butchered by her live-in partner Aftab Amin. Aftab had killed Shraddha and chopped her into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-liter fridge for almost three weeks at his residence before disposing of her body parts at different locations around Delhi.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday made way for the release of Bhima Koregaon violence accused Gautam Navlakha from Maharashtra jail by waiving the requirement of a solvency certificate for availing the benefit of house arrest.
The #SupremeCourt cleared the obstruction in the release of activist Gautam Navlakha, accused in Bhima Koregaon case, from a Maharashtra jail by waiving the requirement of a solvency certificate for availing the benefit of house arrest. pic.twitter.com/EoZbNTnq6b
Earlier this month, the apex court ordered the transfer of Gautam Navlakha to house arrest on account of his medical condition. But he lacked the solvency certificate required to avail the benefit of house arrest.
Navlakha’s counsel, senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan and advocate Shadan Farasat, informed the court that it will take a minimum of six weeks to secure a solvency certificate in respect of surety to be provided as a precondition for house arrest of the activist.
However, the Supreme Court this week did away with the requirement as the bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy pointed out that since it may require a minimum of six weeks to secure the solvency certificate in respect of surety to be provided as a pre-condition for the house arrest of the petitioner.
“Considering the submission and the circumstances, we deem it appropriate to waive the requirement of a solvency certificate for the petitioner to avail the benefit of our order dated 10.11.2022. It is ordered accordingly,” said the bench, in its order.
“Since other adequate security proofs such as passport, Aadhaar card, and PAN card have been provided, the trial court should not insist on a ration card as an additional proof of identity for the benefit of this court’s order,” the court further said.
On November 10, the Supreme Court allowed Navlakha to live under house arrest with his partner without using the phone. The court said he’ll be allowed to meet 2 members of his family, once a week and asked him to deposit a demand draft of Rs 2.40 lakh by name of Navi Mumbai CP, as the expenses to be incurred for constables’ deployment.
Gautam Navlakha arrested by NIA in connection with Elgar Parishad event in Bhima Koregaon
Gautam Navlakha was arrested in 2020 when 11 people were taken into custody for organising and giving provocative speeches during the Elgar Parishad event on the 31st of December 2017. The event was organised by “activists” of Kabir Kala Manch in Pune. The NIA says that the event promoted enmity between different groups of people and caste groups, leading to violence and loss of life. The NIA investigation revealed that the organisers of Elgar Parishad were in touch with leaders of CPI (Maoist), a banned terror outfit under UAPA, and were spreading the ideology of Naxalism/Maoism to encourage unlawful activity.
The evidence, according to the NIA, suggests that the CPI (Maoist) allegedly chalked out “United From and Work in the basic Masses”, under which a detailed strategy and programme to unite the struggles of various “oppressed nationalities” into a common fighting united front against the common enemy, i.e. the “Indian State”.
NIA said that in its investigation, they collected evidence that showed Navlakha and Hany babu MT were members of CPI (Maoist). They allegedly possessed “incriminating documents related to CPI (Maoist)” that are exclusively available only to the party members.
During the investigation, NIA found that arrested accused number 10, Anand Teltumbde was allegedly a senior member of CPI (Maoist) and worked in an urban area. He was in contact with other arrested accused, including Navlakha, accused Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonsalves, Stan Swamy, Hany Babu and other members of the CPI (Maoist) party along with accused Harshali Potdar and wanted accused Sudarshanda alias Katkam Sudarshan, secretary CRB and CCM of CPI (Maoist) party.
The ISI connection
Navlakha was also in contact with ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai via email and phone. Notably, Fai was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July 2011 for accepting funds from the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistani government. Fai reportedly did not disclose the origin of funds as required by US law. Navlakha had sought clemency for him in US court in a case of terror funding.
As per NIA, Navlakha visited the USA thrice and addressed the ‘Kashmiri American Council’ (KAC) Conference organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai. He used the email address [email protected] to stay in touch with Fai and contacted me over phone calls as well.
Navlakha allegedly wrote a letter to US Court Judge who was hearing Fai’s case for clemency. He allegedly submitted letters to the US court on Fai’s behalf. Furthermore, Navlakha was allegedly introduced to a Pakistani ISI General by Fai for his recruitment on the directions of the ISI. NIA alleged the evidence showed his nexus and complicity with ISI and Fai.
Hours after the story behind the brutal murder case of Shraddha Walker was uncovered, Nirmal Kaur, a 1983 batch IPS officer who retired as DGP in Jharkhand said that Muslim men deliberately entrap Hindu girls and they get huge funds for this purpose. She said that the Muslim men who kidnap Hindu girls are also provided with all the required legal support by their community.
Kaur stated her opinion while she was speaking during NDTV prime time debate on November 14. “The persons executing the entrapment of Hindu women are provided with motorcycles or heavy monetary assistance. These people are also provided with all the required legal assistance. Many similar cases are emerging these days. In a way, this is being supported by their sub-culture. Their community has started accepting and making their people believe that woman has no feelings, and no value in society. They see her as an object,” she said.
Retd DGP from Jharkhand talking openly about how entrapping of Hindu girls is a cottage industry now. The @ndtv anchor looks like she has gone catatonic! pic.twitter.com/30yjBPzYp2
Kaur who was in the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) till 2016 also said that these kinds of acts are usually executed by psychopaths who have no guilty feelings at all. “In the current case, I’ve seen some visuals of the accused and it broadly appears that he is not a psychopath but is highly influenced by their sub-culture where Hindu women or women, in particular, are seen as an object,” she noted.
She meanwhile also referred to the Jharkhand murder case where a minor girl was burnt alive by the accused named Shahrukh in Dumka and said that it was also a similar case. She further reiterated that the Muslim sub-culture supports these kinds of acts and their culture is quite widespread. She also said that Muslim boys were deliberately entrapping Hindu women and were being provided with monetary assistance for luring Hindu women. (From 21.08 to 26.05 in the video).
Shraddha Walkar murder case
On November 14, the Delhi Police solved the six-month-old murder case of Shraddha Walkar and arrested Aftab Poonawala for murdering her, and then chopping her into 35 small pieces. Aftab executed the murder on May 18 and stored her body parts in the refrigerator. He then disposed of the body pieces in Delhi’s Mehrauli forest during the next 18 days.
The accused was arrested based on the complaint filed by Shraddha’s father on November 10. He stated in the complaint that the accused and the deceased had rented an apartment in Delhi and were staying in an unhealthy live-in relationship. He said that he had always opposed their relationship as Aftab used to physically assault Shraddha.
The girl, a resident of Palghar was adamant about continuing her relationship with accused Aftab and shifted to Delhi with him. Three days after they shifted to Delhi, they engaged in a quarrel and Aftab happened to kill Shraddha. He confessed his crime on November 14 and stated that they used to fight a lot. He said that he murdered Shraddha on May 18 as she was forcing him to get married to her.
The accused has been arrested and a case under IPC section 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offense committed) have been registered. Further investigations into the case are underway.
Supporters of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and supporters of former CM Uddhav Thackeray clashed with each other in a brawl in Thane. The altercation took place on the night of November 14 and 15. An FIR has been filed against both sides after allegations were made by each party.
Following the brawl, followers from both sides rushed to Thane’s Shri Nagar police station to file complaints against each other. A number of persons allegedly attacked supporters of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde outside the police station, prompting police to employ lathi charge to scatter them.
Videos from the altercation between the two factions are making the rounds on social media. The footage shows police officers trying to control the crowd amidst the commotion, afterward, people can be seen scrambling to avoid being hit by the police lathicharge.
Notably, this occurred days after Gajanan Kirtikar, a senior member of the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav, joined the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena in the presence of Chief Minister Shinde.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government fell after Eknath Shinde and 39 other Sena MLAs defected against the party leadership in June this year. Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. The Election Commission of India handed the Eknath Shinde side two swords and a shield sign months after the split, while the Uddhav Thackeray group got Mashaal as their electoral symbol.
Shinde had defied Uddhav Thackeray for establishing an “unnatural alliance” with Congress and the NCP. Thackeray was forced to resign as Chief Minister of Maharashtra when more than 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs backed Shinde. Shinde, also got support from 12 of the Shiv Sena’s 18 Lok Sabha members.
On Tuesday, November 15, a 17-year-old footballer Priya R, who lost a leg due to alleged medical negligence, passed away at a government hospital in Chennai. Priya R breathed her last at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), where she was shifted after surgery to repair a torn ligament in her right knee in the government’s Periyar Hospital near her home went wrong.
The 17-year-old football player was pursuing her BSc in Physical Education at a private college in Chennai. She was residing at Vyasarpadi with her family in Chennai.
? | 18 year-old Chennai based footballer Priya died days after undergoing a surgery that was meant to repair torn ligaments in her right knee to help her play football better, she died from multiple organ failure due to alleged medical negligence. [TNM] #JusticeForPriyapic.twitter.com/aPBLcpct8j
According to media reports, the teenage footballer, who was in the intensive care unit at RGGGH, developed kidney and heart-related problems and succumbed to multiple organ failures today at 7.15 am.
Following the death, which her family members attributed to medical negligence, a protest was held demanding immediate action on the matter. The protests were held even as Priya’s dead body was carried out from the mortuary after the post-mortem.
Chennai, TN | Family members of a teenage footballer, Priya R who allegedly died after a knee surgery due to medical negligence, protest as they demand immediate action from police in the matter. Protests come as Priya’s body is carried out from the mortuary after a post mortem pic.twitter.com/ibC4mTlMLH
M A Subramanian, the state Health Minister, confirmed that it was a case of medical negligence and stated that the two Periyar Hospital doctors who performed the initial surgery have been suspended and that legal action will be taken against them.
“It is a case of medical negligence. After the surgery, the compression band was tightened excessively affecting the blood circulation,” Health Minister Subramanian told the media.
He further stated that the family will be given a compensation of Rs 10 lakh, and one of her three brothers will get a government job.
Priya was brought to Periyar Nagar government hospital on November 7 for knee arthroscopy. Priya began complaining of severe leg pain the same evening. The physicians suggested a tight compression bandage and painkillers to relieve the pain. The next morning, she was transferred to RGGGH after doctors suspected a blood clot in her leg. Doctors at RGGGH then performed a series of tests and notified Priya’s family that the tissues in her right leg were dead and the only way to save her life was to amputate it.
On November 9, Priya’s leg was amputated. Her suffering, however, did not end there. She had to have a second follow-up surgery at RGGGH on Monday, November 14, because her condition did not improve. Doctors constantly monitored her while she was kept sedated and on a ventilator. However, she passed away the following day after the surgery.
On November 15, a dead body of an unidentified man in his 30s was found stuffed in an abandoned red-colours suitcase outside the Railway Station in Jalandhar at around 6 AM. A worker had noticed the bag and alerted the railway officials. Police were informed about the bag. As per reports, the Railway Police team seized the bag and sealed the area. The forensic investigation team was called on the spot to collect evidence.
Punjab | Body found inside a suitcase at Jalandhar railway station. Police say an investigation is underway. pic.twitter.com/ZURk5d6zuu
A police official told The Tribune that an initial investigation revealed the bag had been lying at the station since Monday night. “The police teams scrutinised CCTV cameras to identify the person who had left the suitcase. In one of the footage, a young man can be seen leaving the suitcase and going out through the station,” he added.
Amar Ujala and Jag Bani reported contradictory information about the injuries on the dead body. While Amar Ujala’s report suggested there were signs of injuries, Jag Bani’s report suggested the opposite. When OpIndia contacted SHO Ashok Kumar, he said there were indeed injury marks on the body. He said, “There were injury marks near the eyes, and his lips were bloated.”
A Deccan Herald report suggested that while checking CCTV footage of the area, the police found that a man had left the bag outside the station. However, SHO Kumar said the police are still looking into the CCTV footage, and more information will come out by tomorrow. He further added that no documents or any identification markers were found on the dead body. “So far, the dead body is unidentified, but we are trying to find out as soon as possible,” he added.
ABP Punjab quoted GRPF ACP Om Prakash saying he was informed about the incident at 7 AM. He reached the spot with the SHO and initiated the investigation into the matter. The dead body was shifted to a hospital, and further investigation into the matter is underway.
On Tuesday, November 15, the Delhi Police took accused Aftab Poonawala to the forest around Delhi’s Mehrauli to recreate the crime scene of Shraddha’s murder. Notably, Aftab had disposed of Shraddha’s dead body in pieces in this forest after cutting her up in 35 pieces back in May. In a crime that shocked the nation, Aftab stored the chopped-up body parts in his fridge and disposed of them one by one over 18 days.
Delhi Police cracked the six-month-old murder case and arrested the accused on November 14. The accused was arrested based on the complaint filed by Shraddha’s father who is a resident of Palghar district in Maharashtra. The accused confessed to the crime and said that he was in a live-in relationship with Shraddha, the departed soul. He stated that he executed the crime after Shraddha tried to force him to get married to her.
The Police took the accused to Delhi’s Mehrauli forest area to recreate the crime scene. During the investigation, the locals staying around the forest informed the police that they had no information about the murder and that they came to know about it only through television. “We don’t go out during the night. We don’t use this area to cross the jungle. We always use the main gate,” one of the locals was quoted by Republic TV.
Locals also demanded death punishment for the accused and said, “The jungle is very thick, nobody can ever come to know if somebody goes in the jungle. There was no suspicion and we did not smell anything because we don’t go that deep in the jungle. He (the accused) should be given the death penalty and nothing less than that.”
Aftab and Shraddha met through a dating app and began dating while working at a call center in Mumbai. After Shraddha’s family disapproved of their relationship, the pair eloped to Delhi and began living together. The locals who stayed around Aftab and Shraddha’s rented apartment also talked to the media and condemned the incident. They also criticized the practice of live-in relationships and said that these kinds of incidents happen due to live-in relationships.
One of the locals while speaking to the ABP news said, “Government, judiciary approved the live-in relationship with an intention to reduce rapes and murders but now these kinds of gruesome incidents are happening. Live-in should have no place in society.”
Notably, the Supreme Court in ‘S. Khushboo v. Kanniammal’ case gave legal recognition to live-in relationships by categorizing them as ‘domestic relationships’ protected under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The Court ruled that a live-in relationship is protected by the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The Court also ruled that live-in relationships are legal and that the act of two adults living together cannot be regarded as criminal or unlawful in any situation.
In the current case, the accused and the deceased were staying in a live-in relationship in Delhi. The relationship was not approved by the family of the deceased woman. Shraddha’s father in the complaint mentioned that the accused physically assaulted Shraddha very often and they never approved of her relationship with Aftab. “The relationship between my daughter and Aftab was not good. I am confident that he is behind her disappearance. Either he has hidden her somewhere or has done something wrong,” he said in his complaint that led to Aftab’s arrest.
Following the father’s complaint, the Delhi Police launched an investigation and eventually apprehended Aftab using technical surveillance. The accused during the interrogation confessed. Aftab said that they shifted to Delhi by April-end or May first week after facing opposition from their families. He also said that they used to have regular fights during their relationship.
The duo suspected each other of cheating and often asked for GPS details and photographs of their surroundings. To improve their relationship, they also planned a trip to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in April this year. It is after the trip that they moved to Delhi. However, on May 18, three days after they shifted to Delhi they again got into a fight which concluded in Shraddha’s death this time. “We suspect the woman was shouting or screaming during the fight, and the man tried to silence her by strangling and overpowering her. She died during the struggle,” said Additional DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan.
As per the reports, the accused after murdering Shraddha made all the efforts to make people believe that she was alive. He used to sleep in the same room where he murdered her and also used her social media account to post regular updates. He kept her Instagram account active till July and engaged in fake conversations with her friends to make them believe that she was active and alive.
Though the Police have nabbed the accused and sent him on five-day remand, the weapon with which Aftab severed Shraddha’s dead body is yet to be recovered.
Aftab, the man who killed his live-in partner Shraddha and chopped her into 35 pieces before disposing of her body parts in different locations in Delhi, used to see Shraddha’s face after keeping it in his refrigerator, according to reports.
The Delhi Police solved the six-month-old murder case and arrested the accused for murdering his 28-year-old live-in partner. The police interrogated Aftab during which he confessed to his crime and said that he searched for the method to clean the blood on the internet. He also said that he read about human anatomy before chopping the dead body of Shraddha into 35 small pieces.
The Delhi Police said Aftab was a food blogger and had used his chopping skills to severe the dead body of the deceased after the murder. The Police also revealed that the accused had around 28,000 followers on Instagram and had stopped sharing updates since February this year.
He was arrested based on the complaint filed by Shraddha’s father on November 10. Aftab and Shraddha met and began dating while working at a call centre in Mumbai, the complaint filed by the victim’s father said. After her family disapproved of their relationship, the pair eloped to Delhi and began living together. Shraddha’s father in the complaint mentioned that he never approved of his daughter’s relationship with Aftab as he used to physically assault her.
The deceased was, however, adamant about her decision to continue her relationship with the accused so the duo shifted to Delhi in May this year. Three days after they shifted, the accused brutally murdered the woman and chopped her into 35 pieces on May 18. He bought a refrigerator especially to store the severed body parts of the deceased. Later he disposed of the pieces in the forest area of Delhi’s Mehrauli over the next 18 days.
Aftab used to see Shraddha’s face kept in the refrigerator; faked conversation with Shraddha to make others believe she is alive
Reports mention that the accused stayed in the same room where he had murdered the woman and used to look at the face of the woman that he had chopped off and kept in the refrigerator. He also handled her Instagram account and engaged in fake conversations with her friends to make her friends and followers believe that she was active and alive. The accused also cleaned the fridge with some chemicals after disposing of the body parts in various parts of Delhi.
According to the Police, after the murder, Aftab resumed his job at a call centre. He used to return home at about 6 or 7 pm and then used to focus on the bits of the deceased corpse preserved in the fridge for disposal. He used to wrap the body parts in black foil and throw them in the forest without the foil to escape suspicion.
The accused during the interrogation confessed to the crime and said that they shifted to Delhi by April-end or May first week after facing opposition from their families. He also said that they used to have regular fights during their relationship. The duo suspected each other of cheating and often asked for GPS details and photographs of the surroundings. To make their relationship better, they also had planned a trip to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in April this year. It is after the trip that they decided to move to Delhi.
Reports also mention that the accused had earlier worked as a chef in a Mumbai-based restaurant. During the chef training, he was taught how to cut meat into small pieces and preserve them in refrigeration. The job had also taught him tips and tricks to maintain cleanliness after chopping the meat. According to the police, Aftab’s former job as a chef helped him clinically chop Shraddha’s dead body into 35 pieces.
The accused has been arrested and a case under IPC section 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed) have been registered. Further investigations into the case are underway.
On Tuesday, the world’s population surpassed the 8 billion mark, just 12 years after surpassing the 7 billion mark. According to the United Nations’ most recent forecasts, the world population might reach 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.4 billion in 2100.
“Unless we bridge the yawning chasm between the global haves and have-nots, we are setting ourselves up for an 8-billion-strong world filled with tensions and mistrust, crisis and conflict,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
According to a press release by the international body, the occasion is also a clarion call for mankind to look well beyond numbers and meet its shared obligation to safeguard people and the earth, beginning with the most disadvantaged.
According to the World Population Prospectus 2022, the average fertility of the world’s population in 2021 was 2.3 births per woman during a lifetime, down from roughly 5 births per woman in 1950. Global fertility is expected to fall even more by 2050, to 2.1 births per woman.
Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people (29 per cent of the world population) and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion people were the two most populated areas in 2022. (26 per cent). With almost 1.4 billion people each, China and India accounted for the majority of the population in these two areas. In 2023, India is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populated country.
More than half of the predicted worldwide population rise between 2022 and 2050 is likely to be concentrated in only eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the United Republic of Tanzania.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, in order to increase demographic resilience, we must invest in improved infrastructure, education, and health care, as well as assure access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. We must remove the barriers that prevent individuals from obtaining the services and opportunities they require, whether they are based on gender, colour, disability, or immigrant status.
Aftab Amin Poonawalla, a 28-year-old food blogger from Mumbai, was arrested by the Delhi police on Saturday (November 12) for the gruesome murder of his Hindu live-in partner, Shraddha Walkar.
He had strangled the victim to death on May 18 this year and then chopped her body into 35 pieces. Over a span of several days, he disposed of her body parts at 18 different locations in the National Capital.
The gory details and severity of his heinous crime have sent shockwaves across the country. His social media accounts have also come under the scanner, with netizens outpouring their anger in the comment section of his posts.
Killer of Shraddha was a vocal ‘activist’ on social media
Aftab Amin Poonawalla had the persona of an activist on social media. He was seen co-opting the liberal narrative of targeting Hindu festivals by raking up one environmental issue or the other.
In October 2015, he shared a post wherein a child was seen holding a poster that read, “This Diwali burst your ego, not crackers.” His attempt at virtue-signalling the Hindu community did not stop with the festival of lights.
In March 2016, he was seen trying to trick Hindus into guilt for ‘wasting water’ on the occasion of Holi. Although ‘World Water Day’ is observed on March 22, he deliberately shared a post about ‘water scarcity’ on March 24 (coinciding with the Holi festivities of that year).
However, Opindia did not find any social media posts by Aftab, asking adherents of other Faiths from celebrating their festival differently. He had exclusively confined his virtue signalling to Hindu festivals.
He was also seen supporting the LGBTQ+ movement by adding ‘Pride colours’ to his Facebook display picture.
Screengrab of the Facebook post of Aftab
As ironic as it may sound, Aftab Amin Poonawalla was also a ‘women’s rights activist.’ In 2014, he shared a post by ‘The Logical Indian’ that read, “Women are not born with labels.”
According to Shraddha’s father, the accused physically assaulted her daughter on multiple occasions. The victim had informed her parents about the abuse perpetrated by Aftab.
Screengrab of the Facebook post
The murder accused did not leave any opportunity to pretend as a ‘humanist’ on social media. “The smallest coffins are the heaviest,” a post shared by Aftab read in the aftermath of the 2014 Peshawar School Massacre.
Aftab, however, had no qualms about slaughtering his ‘beloved’ and storing her body in the refrigerator. He even went on to mince her intestine into finely diced shreds. The accused also had sex with multiple women, while Shraddha’s dismembered body lay frozen in the refrigerator.
His activism did not stop and only intensified with time. He had also championed the cause of Aarey forest and had been an advocate for net neutrality.
Aftab Amin Poonawalla targeted BJP with a dubious social media post
The murder accused also insinuated that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been at the helm of creating communal tensions in the society,
In October 2015, he shared a post, which claimed that an alleged BJP worker (dressed in burqa) tried to throw beef inside a temple and create a Hindu-Muslim divide.
While reporting about the matter, India News found that the original tweet, which was the basis of the contentious claim, was deleted.
Even the likes of Alt News could not find any conclusive report about such an incident. “Alt News could not find a single conclusive news report of the incident. The claim which had circulated back then- that the person is a RSS member, could not be verified,” it had stated.
The murderer of Shraddha was obsessed with food, tattoos
Aftab was fascinated with the tattoos, which he embossed on his two arms. While one read ‘Faith’, the other one read ‘Hope.’ He had flaunted them in various social media posts and even made it the display picture of his Facebook profile.
Besides tattoos, the murder accused was obsessed with taking pictures of food. His Instagram profile (@thehungrychokro) is filled with images of desserts and beverages.
Screengrab of the Instagram timeline of Aftab Amin Poonawalla
Through his food blogging pursuits, Aftab was even able to meet celebrity chef, Harpal Singh Sokhi, on the sets of Turban Tadka in May 2014.
Aftab Amin Poonawalla had a ‘skill for the kill’: A Retrospective analysis
On October 3, 2016, the murder accused shared a Buzzfeed article, which taught ways to chop fruits and vegetables like a professional chef. Just 6 years later, he used the same skills to slaughter his live-in partner.
Screengrab of the Facebook post
On Monday (November 14), the Delhi police informed that Aftab Amin Poonawalla read about human anatomy before chopping Shraddha’s body and searched for methods, to clean the blood, on the internet.
Reports also mention that the accused had earlier worked as a chef in a Mumbai-based restaurant. During the chef training, he was taught how to cut meat into small pieces and preserve them in refrigeration.
The job had also taught him tips and tricks to maintain cleanliness after chopping the meat. According to the police, Aftab’s former job as a chef helped him in clinically chopping Shraddha’s dead body into 35 pieces.
Contradictory claims about the religion of the murder accused settled
After the news of the barbaric crime went viral on social media, the usual suspects began contradicting the religious affiliation of Aftab Amin Poonawalla. They claimed that the accused is a Parsi by Faith and his heinous act is being used to ‘defame’ the Muslim community.
Opindia had debunked the disinformation and pointed out how Aftab had professed his Faith on Instagram. “I am a Muslim and the other term you’re is Hindu. Lord Krishna is the God of Hindus. May I ask why the certain inquisitiveness about my religion???” he told another user.
The religious affiliation of the accused also becomes clear from the complaint, filed by the victim’s father with the police and attached to the First Information Report (FIR) in the case.
Copy of the FIR in the Shraddha murder case
“My daughter had told my wife in 2019 that she wants to stay in a live-in relationship with Aftab Amin Poonawalla. I and my wife had said ‘No’ to it. This is because we are Hindus and belong to the Koli caste. And the boy is a Muslim,” the complaint read.
It further added, “In our place, we do not engage in inter-caste, inter-faith relationships.” It is thus clear that Aftab Amin Poonwalla is a Muslim by Faith and not a Parsi, as claimed by several users on social media.
The arrest of the accused on Saturday (November 12) thus brings closure to the 6-month-old case, although shocking details about Aftab continue to emerge and shock the public conscience.
