Shraddha Walkar murder: What Aaftab Poonawalla’s chess moves in jail reveal about his mind

Accused of the gruesome murder of his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, 28-year-old Aaftab is currently lodged at Delhi’s Tihar jail. Aaftab spends most of his time in prison playing chess, sometimes with two fellow inmates but mostly alone. He plays from both sides black and white, a mannerism which mirrors something that the Delhi Police suspect from the beginning: that Aaftab plans his own moves against himself. 

Poonawalla is accused of murdering 26-year-old Walkar and then chopping her body into 35 parts before disposing them off. He has been cooperating with the police from the start of the probe. But the police sometimes feel as if he is misleading the probe as if plotting a game of chess. An investigator was quoted by a source as saying that the police expect “a new twist” to arise at any stage. 

Aaftab was sent to a 14-day judicial custody on November 26. He shares the prison cell at Tihar with two other inmates. The two frequently play chess and Aaftab is seen as keenly observing their game. When it comes to playing himself, he prefers to mostly play alone, making strategies from both the sides himself. He is a "good player, in this game of checkmate", sources have been quoted as saying. The two fellow inmates are theft-accused and have been asked to keep a close eye on Aaftab in the cell. He does not talk to them and only keeps playing chess alone for hours. 

Sources have said that Aaftab is “very cunning” and every move that he makes “seems part of a well-planned conspiracy”. 

Feels like “he is playing alone from both ends…" 

"Sometimes it seems that the investigating officer is not us but the accused Aaftab, at whose behest the Delhi Police department is going places, and it is evident in the way the police has got entangled in his already woven story, a senior police official was quoted as having said once during the ongoing probe. 

This is why the police decided to first go for a psychologist and later a narco test to understand his mind. Police sources have said that it is difficult to “believe anything about him”.

The police are now becoming suspicious of Aaftab’s “good” behaviour. He has cooperated with the probe, confessed the horror crime and agreed to whatever tests the probe demanded. He had earlier tried to mislead the Mumbai Police before Delhi Police cracked the case. However, the police also suspect that this may have been part of Aaftab’s “devious” scheme. 

"It seems from his actions that the murder of Shraddha Walkar was also a part of a deeper conspiracy like his chess strategies," Tihar Jail sources were quoted as saying.

READ | Chopped with Chinese cleaver, organs minced: Aaftab reveals chilling details of Dahmer-style murder of Shraddha Walkar

(With inputs from ANI)