Why is pending water bill of Aftab Poonawalla's flat a vital evidence for police in Shraddha's murder case?

Chandigarh, November 17

Food blogger Aftab Poonawala, who is being probed for murdering his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into 35 pieces in May, will be produced before a Delhi court on Thursday.

Amid all this, an outstanding water bill of the couple has surfaced, which is likely to play an important role in the investigation.

The Delhi government provides around 20,000 litres water for free to its residents in the capital. 

Two neighbours living on the floor above Aftab’s informed the police that the water bill of all the houses normally came to zero, except the recent bill of Aftab’s, who had an outstanding dues of Rs 300, leading to suspicion.

The pending water bill showed that Aftab may have used a large quantity of water probably to clean the blood and other signs of murder in the flat.

Sources said. “After the murder, Aftab used a lot of water to clean the blood stains leading to the  bill. Neighbours told the police that Aftab would regularly go and check the building’s water tank.”

The police have also got the information that in the rent agreement, Aftab had put Shraddha’s name first.

“The flat owner knew that they were not married. They were given the flat through a broker. Aftab used to deposit Rs 9,000 into the account of the owner between 8th and 10th of every month,” sources said.

In case the court granted further custody to the police, they were likely to investigate this angle too, said police sources.

Earlier, Aftab had told the police that before the murder there was a fight between the couple over the shifting of household items from Mumbai.

The biggest breakthrough the police got was the bank statement of the couple’s account which showed a transaction of Rs 54,000 from Shraddha’s net banking account app to Aftab’s account on May 26. The transaction exposed Aftab’s lies in which he had earlier said that Shraddha was unreachable after May 22 and he did not come in contact with her. With inputs from ANI