Delhi Police today recovered a human jaw while searching for the body parts of Shraddha Walkar, who was allegedly murdered by her live-in partner in May. Police have approached a dentist in Delhi to ascertain if the jaw could be that of the 27-year-old murder victim.
"The police came today. They had a picture of the jaw which they recovered during the investigation. I asked them to get an X-ray from the Mumbai-based doctor who treated the woman, for a root canal treatment or so. Without an X-ray, it is very difficult to identify," the dentist told news agency PTI.
Delhi police are questioning Aaftab Poonawala, 28, for allegedly strangling his partner in May and sawing her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in the fridge for almost three weeks before dumping them in a forest over several days.
Police had on Sunday found parts of a skull and some bones in a nearby forest area. As part of their search operation to recover more remains, a pond in South Delhi's Maidangarhi is also being drained.
The police had recovered heavy and sharp cutting tools on Saturday from Aftab Poonawala's flat, which they suspect might have been used to chop off Shraddha Walkar's body. They also found a heavy black polythene bag at Aftab's Gurugram workplace the day before.
Aftab Poonawala was arrested earlier his month after Shraddha's parents — who hadn't spoken to her since last year as they were upset over their relationship — went to the cops. Shraddha's friends had told her father they hadn't heard from her in over two months, at which he filed a 'missing' report and later a kidnap case. Cops from Maharashtra and Delhi then collaborated to crack the case.
Investigators said that after strangling her over an argument about household expenses and infidelity, he used a knife to chop up the body, kept these in a new fridge he bought, and dumped these over 18 days in a jungle nearby.
