Aftab Poonawala’s father was aware of beatings, torture and even murder of Shraddha Walkar

NEW DELHI: Sources in the Delhi police teams investigating the macabre murder of Shraddha Walkar that shook the collective conscience of the nation, claimed that Aftab Amin Poonawalla’s father was aware of all the beating and torture and even the death of Shraddha Walkar at the hands of his son Aftab.

On several occasions, Shraddha’s family and friends had conveyed to the Poonwala household that Aftab was beating and torturing the woman. But the family and particularly, Aftab’s father brushed the matter under the carpet and only paid heed to the version given by his son. He played a mediator and convinced Shraddha that Aftab would reform and even promised her on Aftab’s behalf that his son would not beat her again, her friends have told the police in their statements.

This happened on at least two occasions – once when she was admitted at a hospital at Vasai in Palghar district of Maharashtra with severe back pain and other bruises and the second time in April this year.

As a matter of fact, Shraddha and her friends had communicated to Aftab’s father on several occasions that Aftab was very violent and use to thrash her up, even when there were small fights between the two, but his father did not take any action against his son.

Meanwhile, Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar said Shraddha and he stayed together for 12-13 days when her mother died in January 2020.

“She did not talk to me, and I was also in a state of shock due to the loss (wife’s death) that I also did not ask her much about Aftab,” he added.

A team of Delhi police, probing the Shraddha Walkar murder case, had conducted a search in the Bhayander creek near Mumbai for a mobile phone and other items.

The search was conducted with the help of personnel of the Mira-Bhayandar-Vasai-Virar Police, according to a PTI report.

The police team from Delhi camped in Vasai near Mumbai, from which Shraddha and her alleged murderer Aaftab Poonawala hailed, for a week.

The investigators also recorded statements of Shraddha and Poonawala’s friends, relatives, and owners of the flats they had rented, among others.

Poonawala allegedly murdered Shraddha in their flat in Delhi in May this year.

He allegedly strangled Shraddha and cut up her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at their residence before dumping them across the national capital region over several days past midnight.