Pandav Nagar murder: Oblivious neighbours in shock, say family 'kept to themselves'

Neighbours of the woman who along with her son allegedly killed her husband and chopped his body into 10 pieces in her Pandav Nagar house here said on Monday they did not know much about the family as they kept to themselves.

Anjan Das (45) was killed on May 30 by his wife Poonam (48) and stepson Deepak (25) who were arrested from east Delhi's Pandav Nagar.

Oblivious to the conspiracy that was hatched in their neighbourhood, the neighbours were in shock and trying to comprehend what could have made the woman carry out a bone-chilling crime.

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"Pata nahi, kaise himmat aagyi usme (I don't know from where she gathered the courage). I got to know about the case through news channels. The family was living here for the last five-six years but we had no inkling that a conspiracy was being hatched here," said Puspa, who lives in a house opposite the rented accommodation where Das and Poonam were living.

Puspa said that the woman did not interact much with her neighbours.

"Poonam has a son and two daughters who are married. She never interacted with the neighbours. Her son and his wife were living in the nearby area. One of her daughters had visited her almost nine months ago," said Puspa.

The residents have been left in shock as the details of the gruesome murder poured in. Several women sitting outside their homes in the area were seen discussing the case.

"I cannot understand. How can a woman go to this extent to kill her husband?" said a woman resident. While another woman inquisitively asked, "Did you know her? Have you ever talked to her?

"No. I just saw her once or twice outside the house buying vegetables," said the first woman.

The incident came to the fore when some of Das' body parts were found stuffed inside a bag at the Ramlila Ground in east Delhi's Kalyanpuri on June 5.

Over the next few days, his legs, thighs, skull and forearm were recovered following which a case was registered under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence and giving false information) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Pandav Nagar police station.

The victim has a wife and eight sons in Bihar, but he hid this fact from Poonam, police said, adding that a team will be sent there to collect DNA samples of Das' kin to match the body parts.

The mother-son duo had killed Das over suspicion that he was eyeing his stepdaughter and stepson's wife. They had disposed of the body parts at different places in east Delhi over a period of three to four days and buried the skull, they said.

The accused told police that they mixed sleeping pills in Das' drink and after he fell unconscious, used a knife and a dagger to kill him. They then slit his throat and waited for the blood to drain out completely before chopping it into pieces.

The case bears similarities with the murder of 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar in the national capital.

Walkar was allegedly killed by her 28-year-old live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala after a confrontation who then sawed her body into 35 pieces and kept them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in south Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city. The Delhi Police arrested Poonawala on November 12.