New Delhi: Murdered Maharashtra girl Shraddha Walkar told the local police way back in November 2020 that her live-in boyfriend Aftab Poonawalla had threatened to kill her and chop her into pieces.
In a complaint filed with the Vasai Police on 23 November, 2020, Shraddha had told cops that Aftab regularly abused and beat her up.
Shraddha’s complaint read: “Today, he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares and blackmails me that he will cut me up in pieces and throw me away.”
However, sources in the Maharashtra Police said that Shraddha Walkar didn’t want to pursue the complaint against her live-in partner and the matter was closed after 26 days of inquiry. The police was told that the couple had come to an “agreement”.
The police source said: “She had submitted a written complaint to the Nalasopara police station. After receiving it, we visited the couple two days later. Shraddha told the police that everything was fine between them and that she didn’t want to pursue the matter further. The police visited the couple two days after the complaint was filed because Shraddha kept telling us she needed more time.”
Rajesh Kamble, Senior Police Inspector of the Tulinj police station, confirmed to ThePrint that the local police closed the complaint and filed a report after 26 days.
Supreme Court advocate Shilpi Jain explained: “If a complainant tells the police that she doesn’t want to press charges, then the police isn’t duty-bound to monitor or take further action, unless it’s a crime like rape, sexual assault or the complaint of a murder witness. In such cases, the police will convert the complaint into an FIR and also become witnesses themselves.”
Shraddha Wakar was allegedly murdered on 18 May by Aftab Poonawalla, who is now in custody of the Delhi Police.
‘Threatens to kill & cut me up’
Incidentally, Shraddha had repeated her premonition about what her boyfriend could do to her with former work manager Karan. In WhatsApp messages, she informed him that she had no energy to get up from bed after the “beatings”.
ThePrint has seen the 2020 complaint in which Shraddha details her abuse. She wrote: “It’s been six months he has been hitting me, but I didn’t have the guts to go to the police because he would threaten to kill me. His parents are aware that he beat me and that he tried to kill me.”
In the complaint, the 27-year-old mentioned that Aftab’s parents visited them over the weekends. She lived with him because she wanted his family’s blessing for their marriage, Shraddha said.
However, she also told the police in 2020 that she no longer wished to live with him and that Aftab should be held responsible for any physical injury to her.
Shraddha Walkar and Aftab Poonawalla met on a dating app and were together since 2019. Shraddha defied her parents to move in with him, and followed him to Delhi in April 2022 – one and a half years after she filed her initial complaint with the Maharashtra Police.
Aftab was arrested on 12 November from the capital’s Chattarpur area after her family filed a “missing complaint” with both the Maharashtra and Delhi Police.
In custody, Aftab apparently confessed to having killed Shraddha — “in the heat of the moment” — on 18 May and then hacking her body into 35 pieces. He then stored the dismembered parts in a fridge before dumping them in the Mehrauli urban forest and other areas, he told the police.
According to Delhi Police sources, Shraddha and Aftab have had violent fights in the past, and even broke up once to live as flatmates.
Several body parts have been recovered from Mehrauli after Aftab led cops to these locations. Forensic results of the recovered bones, and the DNA match of the blood samples are awaited.
Also read: ‘Aftab tried to strangle her 3-4 times earlier,’ says Delhi murder victim Shraddha’s friend