Police visit 4 states to probe Shraddha Walkar murder case

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Friday sent teams to Mumbai, Gurgaon and Himachal Pradesh to hunt for evidence in the Shraddha Walkar murder case even as the victim's chats with friends and co-workers since two years indicated she was once beaten so badly that she could not get off the bed.

Dating app Bumble on which Poonwala and Walker had met, released a statement calling the incident an "unspeakable crime" and expressed sympathy with the victim's family and loved ones.

The WhatsApp chats revealed a pattern of abuse when Walkar lived with Poonawala in their hometown Vasai near Mumbai. Similarly, pictures of Walkar dating back to 2020 with visible injury marks also surfaced on social media.

Investigators privy to the probe said Poonawala's phone will be sent for forensic examination to identify the people he was in touch with after killing Walkar and to retrieve deleted data. Police have so far recovered some bones. Prima facie, they resemble human bones, sources said.

Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar, 27, on May 18 and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight.

According to police officials, after leaving Mumbai, Walkar and Poonawala had travelled to several locations and police are visiting these places to ascertain whether something had happened on those trips to trigger the murder.

"Ten special teams formed by Delhi Police were sent to multiple locations including Mumbai, Gurgaon, Himachal Pradesh, Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

"We will talk to the owners and staffers of hotels where the couple had stayed in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and also make them identify Poonawala," a source said.

Earlier in the day, a team probing the murder visited the office of a private firm in Gurugram where the accused used to work. He was accompanying the police team, an official said.

Searches were also conducted in the premises of the office to find out if he had thrown in the vicinity parts of her dismembered body, the murder weapon or anything related to the case which could prove to be crucial in the investigation.