Shraddha Walkar: Father’s Cry For Justice

Shraddha Walkar: 27-year-old  who was brutally murdered in Delhi by her live-in boyfriend Aaftab Amin Poonawala, her father Vikas Walkar said Aaftab should be punished the same way he killed his daughter.

He stated at a news conference today that “there should be a serious inquiry, and he should be hanged to death,” demanding an investigation into his family members and any potential suspects in the horrifying murder.

Mr. Walkar also questioned the “freedom” that people acquire when they reach 18 and suggested that it be given greater consideration. Some mobile applications, according to Mr. Walkar, are “causing havoc” and must be stopped.

He continued, saying that children who reach 18 “should be counselled and under supervision,” and that “what happened to her” shouldn’t happen to anybody else. “My daughter told me she was an adult when she left the house.

“I spoke with Shraddha before I left the house. He’s not from our neighbourhood, I added; don’t remain with him. He continued, “She said I want to remain with him.

Police had written to Bumble asking for information from Aaftab’s account to aid in the inquiry. Also with who else he went out to met via the app while Shraddha’s body parts were still at his Chattarpur flat. Shraddha Walkar had met Aaftab in Mumbai using the mobile dating app Bumble.

While satisfied with the direction of the probe now, Mr Walkar said he was upset with laxity initially.

“The probe so far by Delhi and Vasai police is going in the right way. Still, Vasai police Nalasopara police were lax in the probe, I am upset at that. Due to this, my daughter could not be saved. It would have helped me get some proof,” he said.

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When asked if they had closed all doors for Shraddha to return home once she started living with Aaftab, something many believe could have left her isolated and unable to seek refuge from the abuse, he said, “I want to know the reason too. I tried to know, but she never answered all my questions.”

On Shraddha’s complaint to the cops in 2019 after he beat her up at a flat they shared, where she said that his family knew about his violent behaviour, he said he wasn’t aware of it. The local police had said Shraddha later gave another written statement that “we no longer have any quarrel” after Aaftab’s parents spoke to them, and asked for no action to be taken.

“Today he tried to kill me by suffocating me, and he scares me and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces and throw me away. It’s been six months he has been hitting me, but I did not have the guts to go to the police because he would threaten to kill me,” the letter said.

Mr Walkar said he spoke to Shraddha last in mid-2021, and asked her how she was. “She said I am OK, I am living in Bangalore, how are you, how is my brother? That’s all,” she said.

“I spoke to Aaftab once on September 26, I asked him where’s my daughter? You were with her for 3 years, if she left you, you should tell me. He said I have no idea where she is. I said it’s your responsibility to tell me if she was with you for three years. He didn’t give any answer,” Mr Walkar added.