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.
