‘Will kill, chop you in pieces’: Walkar’s cry for help in 2020
Shraddha Walkar, who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend Aaftab Poonawala in May and her body hacked into 35 pieces, filed a police complaint in November 2020 and said her partner had threatened to do exactly that — kill her and cut up her body — according to a copy of the complaint seen by HT.
Maharashtra Police officials said that Walkar filed the complaint at Tullinj Police Station in Palghar on November 23, 2020 but added that no first information report was filed because Walkar backed off after Poonawala’s parents spoke to her. A social worker assigned to the case corroborated this version of events.
In the complaint, Walkar said Poonawala had been abusing her and beating her for six months, and on the day she wrote the letter, even tried to kill her by suffocating her. “...He scares and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces, and throw me away. It’s been six months that he has been hitting me but I did not have the guts to go to the police because he would threaten to kill me,” she wrote in the complaint, seen by HT.
A Delhi Police official aware of the investigation said the letter is part of the probe, and can be used to establish the trouble in their relationship.
“We have taken the letter as part of our record. It is not direct evidence but this has persuasive or incidental value. We may present it in court later to establish the trouble in their relationship. We have also recorded the statement of her friends, who knew about the incident and the fact that she had filed a complaint with the Maharashtra police,” a Delhi Police officer said, requesting anonymity
In the letter, Walkar wrote that his parents visit them over the weekends, and they were aware that he beat Walkar. According to Walkar’s letter, the two were living together and planned to get married soon, but she didn’t want to stay with him any longer. At the time, Shraddha and Aaftab used to live in Regal Apartments in Vasai (east). “I lived with him [Poonawala] till date as we were supposed to get married anytime soon and had the blessing of his family. Henceforth, I am not willing to live with him so any kind of physical damage should be considered coming from him as he has been blackmailing me to kill me or hurt me whenever he sees me anywhere,” Walkar wrote.
Suhas Bavche, deputy commissioner of police for Palghar, said officers had begun investigating the complaint and visited the house she shared with Poonawala. “We made enquiries and were in the process to register an FIR
but Shraddha backed off, saying she had resolved the issue with Aaftab’s parents,” said Bavche. “She gave a written statement on December 19, 2020, that she did not want to pursue the case further.” HT has seen a copy of the said statement.
Poonam Bidlan, a BJP member and social worker who took Shraddha to Tulinj police station, said Walkar appeared scared when she approached the organisation on November 23, 2020. “However, after a few days, she called and told me that she did not want to pursue the case as Aaftab’s parents had intervened and agreed to get them married,” said Bidlan. “She told me that she wanted to get married to Poonawala and that his parents had agreed for it,” Bidlan added.
The 2020 complaint is important for investigators because it marks the clearest link so far between the alleged crime and cover-up on May 18.
NEW DELHI: Aaftab Poonawala, who is accused of killing his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into 35 pieces, could not be taken to complete his polygraph test on Wednesday after he reportedly “complained of a fever”, said police forensic officers involved in the investigation.
Officials at Delhi’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) said they hoped to complete the polygraph test on Wednesday, to pave the way for his narcoanalysis. The procedure for Poonawala’s polygraph test was started on Tuesday evening.
“The investigating officer said Poonawala complained of a fever, so he was not brought to the laboratory. After the polygraph test, the narco analysis will be conducted at a city hospital,” said an official of the Rohini FSL who asked not to be named.
Doctors will also conduct a detailed medical examination on Poonawala before giving a go-ahead for the narco analysis.
Poonawala (28) allegedly murdered his Walkar (27) in
their Chhattarpur Pahadi flat on May 18, dismembered her corpse over the next two days and then scattered the parts across south Delhi and Gurugram, according to his police statement.
The two allegedly moved into the two-room flat on May 15.
The murder came to light only in October, when Walkar’s father filed a missing complaint and informed the Mumbai Police. As part of the probe, Poonawala was questioned by Delhi and Mumbai police.
He was arrested on November 12. However, other than his confession and circumstantial clues, the police has not made public any major pieces of evidence that investigators may have recovered.
Investigators involved in the case said that the narco analysis
and polygraph tests, though inadmissible in court, are key as officers attempt to piece together reportedly disparate statements from the suspect who, the police say,” has not cooperated in the probe so far.
Delhi Police officers have earlier said that Poonawala has given “conflicting reports” of the stores where he bought the weapon to dismember the woman’s body and the spots he allegedly disposed of the body parts. His counsel, however, said Poonawala told a court on Tuesday that he was new to the city and not very familiar with the spots he was being taken by investigators.
Explaining the process of polygraph test, the FSL official quoted above said that police have “shared their requirements”, Poonawala’s profile and other details.