Shraddha Walkar had cigarette burn scars on her upper arms: Marathi actor Madhuri Sangita Patil

MUMBAI: Marathi theatre artiste and actor Madhuri Sangita Patil speaking to this reporter on phone from Dhule where she is shooting for a film, today said that she had observed some scars on Shraddha Walkar’s upper arms during a beach cleanup drive at Juhu beach, nearly two years earlier, which was organised by her and attended by Walkar.

According to her, the scars were none other that cigarette butt burn marks, but she could not understand it earlier as she could never have guessed that Walkar could have undergone so much torture.

“At that time, while speaking to her, although I noticed the marks and scars, I did not understand what they were or how they were caused on her upper arms. It was too personal a question to ask her and I did not know her personally. Now, after reading about the murder case and since her other friends have also stated that her live-in partner and boyfriend Aftab Poonawala used to burn her with cigarette butts, it now strikes me that the burn scars on Shraddha Walkar’s upper arms were nothing but cigarette butt scars and burn marks that were caused on her by Poonawala,” Madhuri told this reporter.

The Delhi Police informed news agencies that Aaftab told police that he used multiple weapons to dismember Shraddha’s body and cut up the corpse.

Over the last few days, cops recovered five large knives which have been sent for forensic tests. Earlier on Thursday, Delhi Police sources told ANI that Aaftab underwent a Perceptual Ability Test (PAT), which is a psychological analysis test, at the Rohini lab.

“Accused has been behaving very normally and smoothly from the beginning. So, it was important to get his polygraph and narco tests done. This is a long process. Even if our custody ends, the narco test could also be done in judicial custody,” said a Delhi Police source. Aaftab is currently in police custody. A Delhi court on Tuesday extended his police custody by four more days.

Aaftab is accused of strangling Shraddha, his live-in partner, to death and chopping her body into 35 pieces. He is also alleged to have preserved the chopped body parts in a refrigerator before dumping them in the forests of south Delhi’s Chhatarpur. (With inputs from ANI)