Food blogger inspired by Dexter hacked girlfriend into pieces and fed them to stray dogs in India

An Indian food blogger in Delhi strangled his girlfriend to death and chopped her into pieces which he wrapped in plastic and stored in the fridge before feeding them to stray dogs, in an imitation of the TV show Dexter.

Police arrested Aftab Poonawala, 28, on Saturday for killing Shraddha Walkar, 27. He is accused of strangling her after an argument over marriage on May 18.

Poonawala told the police he was inspired by Dexter, a TV show featuring a vigilante serial killer who wraps his victims’ bodies in plastic after murdering them.

‘He followed what the main character did to chop the body and discard it,’ said a source quoted in The Indian Express.

After he hacked her into 35 small parts, he kept the pieces in small black poly bags in a fridge which he bought after the murder almost three weeks, copying the character.

The smell of the carcass in Chattarpur Pahadi, where the couple lived, was masked by air fresheners, agarbattis and incense sticks, which Poonawala bought to try and hide the stench of the rotting corpse.

Across multiple trips, he would wait until 2am to dispose of her body, slowly scattered the chopped-up body parts in the Mehrauli jungle in south Delhi.

Poonawala, who received training as a chef, found many ways to get rid of the body parts, including feeding some pieces to stray dogs.

‘We have been told that he removed the intestines first so that it could decompose easily,’ the source said.

The killer began communicating with Walkar’s friends through her Instagram account, so they would think she was still alive, according to The Times of India.

He then threw her phone away and chucked her clothes into a rubbish van later on, and Googled how to clean blood stains from the floor.

The two had met on a dating app three year before. Poonawala was back on the dating apps while pieces of her body were still in the fridge.

Aftab Ameen Poonawalla (left) and Shraddha (right) are pictured together. The food blogger, inspired by Dexter TV show serial killer, allegedly strangled his girlfriend before hacking her body into 35 pieces and storing them in his fridge

After he hacked her into small parts, the killer kept the pieces in black poly bags in a fridge for almost three weeks. He fed some to stray dogs and apparently scattered the rest in the jungle

Dexter features a vigilante serial killer who wraps his victims’ bodies in plastic after murdering them. A scene from the TV show is shown

But by that time, Walkar’s family were asking after her. Friends said she had not responded to their messages in weeks, and they were considering going to the police. 

‘She did not reply to any of my texts since August,’ said her friend Laxman Nadir, speaking to ANI. ‘Her phone was switched off. After enquiring about her with other friends, I informed her brother.’ 

Poonawala and Walkar had met three years prior, becoming romantically engaged before moving from Mumbai to Delhi.

She was a BMM student at the Viva Institute of Technology, but dropped out to work as a sales manager at a retail sports shop, before meeting Poonawala — who had a bachelor in management studies from Santacruz college.

Their parents didn’t accept their relationship. Her father accused Poonawala of domestic abuse, alleging that his ‘daughter would call her mother and say that Aftab had beaten her up’.

Walkar had lost her mother in 2020, moving back in with family to mourn with her father and brother for two weeks before returning home.

But after they moved back in together, Walkar started putting pressure on Poonawala to marry her, according to a police official.

He had originally promised to marry her but later backtracked, leading to the confrontation.

Recent footage showed Poonawalla walking out of the police station into the Mehrauli jungle with cloth wrapped around his face in a desperate bid to avoid being photographed

‘The two quarrelled frequently and it used to get out of control. On 18 May, the man lost his temper and strangled her,’ said the official, speaking with ANI.

Walkar’s father drove to see his daughter but noticed the flat was locked when he arrived at the apartment in May.

When he couldn’t find his daughter, he filed a missing person report in Mumbai.

Police traced her location to Delhi, transferring the case to the Indian capital’s police force, and finally arrested him on Saturday.

Poonawala confessed to the killing. Indian local news followed the man as police took him into the Mehrauli jungle to point to the place where he had scattered the body parts.

They are set to take him back to his home to recreate the crime scene.

Police also recovered some body parts from Poonawala’s rented flat, BBC Hindi reported.

Neither the murder weapon nor the body have yet been fully recovered. The father has demanded a death sentence for the killer.