In a horrifying crime, a 28-year-old man allegedly murdered his live-in partner, chopped her body into 35 pieces and stored them in a fridge. He then scattered the body parts in Delhi’s Mehrauli forest over 18 days as part of the diabolical plot to get away with the crime, police said.

The killer, Aftab Ameen Poonawalla, allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha, 26, on May 18 in a fit of rage after they had a fight. He then chopped her body into bits and bought a 300-litre fridge to keep them. Poonawalla would venture out at 2 am every day to dispose of the body parts in different areas of the forest.

Shraddha worked at the call centre of a multinational company in Mumbai where she met Poonawalla. The two are reported to have fallen in love and decided to live together. Since her parents disapproved of the relationship, the couple left Mumbai and shifted to Delhi. They were living in a rented  flat in Mehrauli.

Soon after, Shraddha stopped responding to her family’s phone calls. On November 8, her father Vikas Madaan came to Delhi to check on his daughter and found that her flat was locked. He approached the local police and filed a complaint that his daughter had been kidnapped.

Police arrested Poonawalla on Saturday after receiving the complaint.  During investigation, he revealed that the two fought frequently as Shraddha wanted to marry him, police sources said.

Police have arrested Poonawalla and booked him for murder. Some remains were recovered from the forest but a medical examination will be carried out to ascertain if they are parts of a human body and a DNA test would reveal the identity of the person.

The knife used by the accused, who was reportedly trained as a chef, has also not been found yet, police said.