For the past few days, India has been called the “dirtiest of murders”.
Police in the capital Delhi have arrested Aftab Poonawalla, a young man, for murdering his partner of three years.
They allege that Mr Poonawalla killed 27-year-old Shraddha Walker in May, dismembered her body into dozens of pieces, kept them in a fridge at his home and, over the past few months, has been going around disposing of them – One piece at a time. – in different parts of the city.
Mr Poonawalla remains in custody and has yet to make a public statement, but told the court on Tuesday that “the information being spread against me is not true” and that he would “cooperate fully with the police investigation”. have been”.
The death was revealed last week after Ms Walker was reported missing by her father.
Since then, the gruesome details of the alleged murder have made daily headlines in India, with unverified information being provided to local journalists by unidentified police officials.
The crime has been dubbed the “fridge murder” and the huge interest in the case has seen news websites run live pages on the investigation that are updated every few minutes.
And anger has spilled over into the streets – protesters have burned effigies of Mr Poonawalla, and called for him to be severely punished.
Lawyers, activists and former police officers have expressed concern over the intense media coverage.
Vikram Singh, retired director general of police in Uttar Pradesh state, called it “highly irresponsible”.
“The hair-by-hair commentary is damaging to the investigation and disrespects the victim,” he told JEE News
Breathtaking coverage has also made it difficult to separate the chaff from the grain — reports are conflicting with little clarity on the facts of the matter, including how the couple met.
Relationship
Although Ms Walker and Mr Poonawalla lived in the same area of Mumbai city, police say they met on Bumble, a dating app.
But in a missing complaint filed with the Mumbai police in early October, her father says they met in 2018 at a call center where they both worked.
Ms. Walker had a strained relationship with her family as they disliked her relationship with Mr. Poonawalla.
In his police complaint, her father said he had tried to stop her from going with Mr Poonawalla because “we are Hindus and Aftab is Muslim and we do not marry outside our caste or religion”.
But the couple started living together in 2019 and moved to Delhi earlier this year and rented an apartment in the Chhatarpur hill area.
Friends of the couple and the police say the two had frequent arguments and accuse Mr. Poonawalla of abusing them.
Senior police official Ankit Chauhan told JEE News that Shraddha started pressuring Mr. Poonawalla to marry her and “on May 18, she lost her temper and strangled him”.
Ms Walker’s father contacted the Mumbai police after being informed by her friends that they had not heard from her for a few months and her phone was switched off.
On Wednesday, a handwritten note surfaced that the Delhi Police said Ms. Walker had written in 2020 in which she complained to the Mumbai police that he had beaten her up and “killed her and threatened to dismember” — exactly what police allege happened two years later.
Following the criticism, the Mumbai Police responded that the case had been investigated, but “closed after his written statement that it was resolved and there was no dispute”.
