‘Will kill, chop you in pieces’: Walkar’s cry for help in 2020

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: 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).