What Maharashtra police said about Mumbai woman’s brutal murder in Delhi – Hindustan Times

Hours after police in Delhi arrested a man accused of murdering his live-in partner, chopping up her body and disposing of it piece by piece, their counterpart in Maharashtra said the accused – Aftab Poonawalla – had ‘changed his statement every time’ they spoke to him.

Sampat Patil, an inspector from the Manikpur police station in Palghar district, told news agency ANI that Poonawalla had told them the victim – who used to work at a Mumbai call centre – and he ‘used to live together’ and that she had left him in May after a fight.

“After discussing it with our seniors we transferred the missing (person’s) case to Delhi. We cannot say how and when he murdered the girl as Delhi Police is investigating…” he said.

According to Delhi Police, Poonawalla allegedly killed the 26-year-old woman, cut up and stored her body in a fridge (he purchased for the purpose) and dumped the pieces in different parts of the national capital over the next few weeks. He confessed to the murder and told police he cut the woman’s body in to 35 pieces, a senior police officer said.

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He was arrested after a complaint by the victim’s father at the police station in Delhi’s Mehrauli; he said he had not been able to contact his daughter for months.

Initial inquiries suggest she met the accused when she was employed at the Mumbai call centre. Her parents did not approve of him, so they shifted to Delhi to live together.

Delhi Police have cited details from the confession – which is not admissible before a court unless it is backed by other evidence (only confessions before a judge are allowed) – to say the couple had a heated argument on May 18. That was when she was strangled.

Over the next two weeks Poonawalla – who had cut her body up – would leave home every night and dump a few of the pieces at different locations in Delhi, police said.

The police have further said they are trying to locate some of the body parts and collect other forensic evidence to establish the sequence of events.