By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Nov 17:
While Delhi police are investigating the brutal murder of Shraddha Vikas Walkar (26) allegedly by her live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawalla (28) in New Delhi on May 18, the Vasai police are likely to interrogate Aftab’s parents since they recently shifted residence from Vasai to Mira Roard on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Aftab reportedly called on his parents residing at “Unique Complex, Diwanman” located at Vasai West before he was arrested on November 12. He met his father, mother and younger brother. He also spoke to a couple of people including the housing society secretary Abdulla Khan.
Subsequently Poonawallas shifted their residence to Mira Road. They are missing after Manikpur (Vasai) police issued a summons to them. The police are wondering whether they had an inkling of their son’s misdeeds. The police sources said that they will interrogate the Poonawallas to find out whether knew about the ghastly crime soon.
The crime began unfolding when Shradha’s colleague Laxman Nadar contacted her father Vikas Walkar (59) somewhere in September and informed him about her phone remaining switched off for long time. Then Walkar approached the Manikpur police who initially refused to register the missing complaint due to jurisdiction issue. Subsequently they registered the complaint on October 12 at the instance of a higher official. They traced Aftab’s location through call data and called him to Vasai on November 03 for interrogation. Then the case was transferred to Mehrauli Police Station, South Delhi district, who registered the FIR on November 10 based on the statement of Walkar.
An investigation was initiated during which the police found that Aftab, with whom Shraddha was in a live-in relationship, allegedly killed her in May. He reportedly chopped her into 35 pieces and disposed of them one by one. Now Delhi’s District Court Saket has given permission to conduct Narco analysis test of Aftab.
Shraddha was working in as customer service representative and then was elevated as team leader at an IT firm that supports hyper local commerce located in Malad in North Mumbai. She was residing at Sanskruti Complex at Vasai West. Shraddha’s mother Suman passed away on January 23,2020. She has a brother Srijay.
Went to a junior college in Diwanman Studied bachelor of management studies from a Santacruz college, left mid-way, went to Pune to do “business”. Both met on dating app “Bumble”.
Both were in live-in relations since 2018. They resided at Yashwant Pride Kini Complex at Naigaon in 2019. In July 2020 they shifted to Regal Apartment in Evershine Complex, Vasai. In August 2021, they shifted to another place after the live-n-license agreement expired. Thereafter they shifted to the Mehrauli area of New Delhi in March.
While Vikas Walkar burst out his anger saying Aftab should be hanged, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut too echoed the similar sentiments saying such people should be hanged in the open market. Call it love-jihad or call it something, but our girls are dying. No one should bring in politics in such matters. If someone does politics in this matter too, he is an enemy of society, he added.
In Vasai, Shiv Sena activists staged protest demonstrations and hanged a symbolic effigy of Aftab on the Ambadi bridge on Wednesday. The agitation was led by District Coordinator Kiran Chendvankar. They demanded that Aftab be hanged at public place. The police later confiscated the effigy.
The BJP activists led by MLA Ram Kadam held demonstrations in Ghatkopar in North East Mumbai and demanded stringent punishment to the accused terming the unfortunate incident as love-jihad. Some activists also demanded that the dating apps be banned since Shraddha and Aftab first met on Bumble dating app.
Rupali Chakankar, Chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women, in a letter dated November 15 to Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, demanded that the clinching evidence be collected and the trial against the accused Aftab be expedited in fast court.
