Shraddha Walkar's father Vikas Walkar on Friday met Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded 'capital punishment' for Aftab Poonawala, who allegedly killed and 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 over several days. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya also accompanied Vikas Walkar to Fadnavis house.
Vikas Walkar expressed unhappiness over the inaction of Vasai and Nalasopara and Tulinj police officers. "An inquiry should also be conducted against the police officials of Vasai and Nalasopara and Tulinj police (in Palghar district) for delayed the investigation on Shraddha's complaint. Had they acted immediately, my daughter would have been alive now," he said.
Shraddha Walkar had submitted a written complaint to Tulinj police in November 2020, in which she alleged: "Poonawala has been abusing me and beating me up. Today, he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces and throw me anyway. It’s been six months he has been hitting me. But I did not have the guts to go to police because he would threaten to kill me."
Talking about Delhi Police's assistance, Vikas said, "Delhi Police assured us that we will get justice. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis also assured us of the same."
Accusing Aftab's family, Vikas said, "Aftab's family knew every thing about him and also about all the atrocities that he committed on Shraddha.'
"I spoke with Shraddha last in 2021 when she said that she is in Bengaluru. But I was not convinced, so I went to the police to lodge a missing person's report on December 23.'
Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday extended by 14 days the judicial custody of Aaftab Amin Poonawala, who allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopped her body into pieces, a source said.
Poonawala was produced before the court through videoconferencing, the court source said. In the last hearing in the case on November 26, the court had extended the judicial custody of the accused by 13 days.
