Shraddha murder case: Police conduct fresh searches across Delhi

New Delhi: New searches were conducted by the Delhi Police on Sunday throughout the city, including in the Chhattarpur forest and the neighbourhood where the accused in the Mehrauli murder case Aftab Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar had resided, according to officials. As Poonawala’s custody remand ends on Tuesday, the police have intensified their searches in Mehrauli and at his apartment in an effort to find the remaining pieces of Walkar’s body and the murder weapon. Official sources state that a Delhi Police team is also conducting searches in the Gurgaon forest regions close to the workplace where Poonawala previously worked. According to police officials, a different team went to their apartment to gather evidence as part of the ongoing investigation. Despite having received approval, investigators are under pressure to conduct Poonawala’s narco test. Since Poonawala’s five-day police custody ends the next day, the test would most likely be conducted in Rohini’s Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital on Monday. Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his house in Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight. The Delhi Police had on Friday sent teams to Maharashtra, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to hunt for evidence in the case. According to officials, after leaving Mumbai, Walkar and Poonawala had travelled to several locations, including Himachal Pradesh, and police are visiting these places to ascertain whether any development during those trips triggered Poonawala to kill his partner.