‘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 the 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, DCP 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, and the life of the couple before this incident. The gruesome crime was unearthed last week after Poonawala ostensibly told the police that he murdered Walkar in their Chhattarpur flat six months ago, chopped her body into at least 35 pieces for over two days, stored them in a refrigerator for about three months, and dumped the body parts in south Delhi and Gurugram. Police said the couple fought over finances on May 18 — three days after they moved into the flat in Chhattarpur. But other than his confession and circumstantial clues, police have not made any major piece of evidence public. Investigators recovered bone fragments from forests in Chhattarpur and Gurugram, found some bloodstains in the flat, and recovered a saw, but forensic tests are yet to conclusively prove that these are linked to the case. Police say Poonawala confessed to the crime but their contention is not admissible in court unless backed by hard proof. HT previously reported that the brother of one of Walkar’s colleagues, Gladwin Rodrigues, said she backed out from registering the FIR after being convinced by Poonawala’s parents to give him a second chance, and settled for a verbal complaint instead. The 2020 complaint, which became public on Wednesday, stirred a political storm.