Aftab allegedly strangled his partner, Shraddha Walkar, on May 18 after a fight
Aftab Ameen Poonawala, who allegedly killed his live-in girlfriend, cut up her body into 35 pieces and dumped the parts across Delhi, is on 24/7 watch in lock-up, security footage reveals.
CCTV footage shows the 28-year-old lying down in the cell that he shares with another prisoner at the police station in Mehrauli in south Delhi.
A couple of policemen sit right outside, keeping an eye on him. Officers are also seen hovering outside the cell, where he will be kept for five days until the next court order.
Aftab Poonawala is accused of executing the most chilling crime to have surfaced in recent times and covering it up for months.
He allegedly strangled his partner, Shraddha Walkar, on May 18 after a fight. After some googling, he chopped her body into pieces and bought a 300-litre fridge to store the parts. For 18 days, he went out at 2 am and disposed of the parts one by one, at different spots.
The couple, who had moved from Mumbai to Delhi in April or May, had been fighting for weeks, apparently because Shraddha, 26, wanted marriage.
Shraddha, a call centre worker at a multinational firm in Mumbai, had met Aftab through a dating app. They moved in together, against the wishes of her family, and eventually left Mumbai.
The crime was discovered after Shraddha's friend told her brother that her mobile phone had been switched off for more than two months. Her social media accounts had also been inactive.
In November, Shraddha's father filed a missing complaint. Vikas Madaan Walkar also arrived in Delhi on November 8 to check on her, and finding the apartment locked, approached the police to file a kidnapping case.
Poonawala "confessed" when he was detained for questioning, the police said. Not all her body parts have been found.
According to the police, Aftab's search history revealed he had looked up how to clean bloodstains and dispose of evidence. He was reportedly also inspired by series "Dexter", based on a serial killer.