‘Aaftab will kill me, cut me into pieces and throw me,’ Shraddha told police in 2020

In the latest twist in the tale of the Shraddha Walkar murder case, a letter has surfaced that Shraddha allegedly wrote in 2020 at the Tulinj police station in Maharashtra's Palghar, in which she complained that Aaftab Poonawala, the accused in her murder case, had beaten her and threatened to kill her.

The letter in question has reportedly been shared by Shraddha's neighbour in Vasai with whom Shraddha had gone to file the complaint. The Maharashtra police have confirmed that the deceased had written a complaint letter on November 23, 2020, at the Tulinj police station. The Maharashtra police also confirmed the authenticity of the said compaint letter shared by Shraddha's neighbour as to have been written by Sharddha.

In the complaint letter, Shraddha said that she "did not have the guts to go to the police" because Aaftab had threatened to kill her. However, she added that Aaftab tried to kill her on the day she was writing the letter, and he also threatened to kill her and cut her into pieces and throw her away.

"It's been six months he has been hitting me," the letter read.

The letter further claimed that Aaftab's parents were aware that he beat her up and that he tried to kill her. "I lived with him till date as we were supposed to get married anytime soon and had the blessings 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," the letter read.

The letter surfaces a day after Aaftab on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he murdered his girlfriend in the "heat of the moment".

Aaftab was produced before the Saket court in the national capital on Tuesday after his five-day police custody expired. "What happened, happened in the heat of the moment," Aaftab told the court.

However, Apollo Hospital, senior consultant psychiatrist, Dr Sandeep Vohra on Tuesday reacted to Aftab's statement in Saket Court. "It cannot be a case of 'heat of the moment'," the top expert said.

"I will not agree to the claim that Aaftab murdered Shraddha in the heat of the moment. If there is something which happens in the heat of the moment you immediately feel guilty, if not immediately then later on. Many times you would hear cases like somebody shot someone or killed someone and surrendered at the police station and accepted his crime. So this case cannot be of the heat of the moment," Dr Sandeep Vohra said.

Meanwhile, a court-sanctioned polygraphy test on Aaftab was initiated in the national capital on Tuesday.

The assistant director of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Rohini, Sanjeev Gupta said the process of conducting a polygraph test on Aaftab has begun and the report will be out in a week's time.

The Delhi Police had previously said Aaftab, following his arrest in the case, confessed to killing his live-in partner in their apartment in West Delhi's Chhatarpur and chopping her body into 35 pieces.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Gupta said: "We've been directed by the Delhi Police and our director to process this case fast. We are working on some parameters that are important before conducting a narco test."

In a polygraph test, the subject is asked a series of questions while his physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration are measured. This data is then used to determine if the subject is lying.

Aaftab is alleged to have preserved the chopped body parts in a refrigerator before dumping them in the forests of Chhatarpur.

Aaftab and Shraddha met on a dating site and moved in together to a rented accommodation in Chhatarpur as the relationship grew. On receipt of the complaint from Shraddha's father, Delhi Police registered an FIR on November 10. — ani

Henceforth, I am not willing to live with him (Aaftab]. 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.” Shraddha Walkar

In her complaint letter on November 23, 2020