Shraddha Walkar Murder: Victim's Father Demands Death Penalty For Aaftab Poonawala, Alleges Police Inaction On 2020 Complaint

Vikas Walkar, father of Shraddha Walkar who was murdered allegedly by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala in Delhi, on Friday demanded that the accused be hanged to death for killing his daughter.

Poonawala allegedly strangled Shraddha and cut her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in Mehrauli in south Delhi in May this year, before dumping them across the city over several days.

Death penalty for Aaftab

"Aaftab Poonawala should be given capital punishment of hanging for killing my daughter...There should be stern action against Poonawala and whosoever was involved in the case," Walkar told reporters here after meeting Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Last month, while a Delhi court was hearing the matter for Aaftab's custody, around 100 advocates, practising at Saket district courts in New Delhi, staged a demonstration on November 17 and shouted slogans demanding award of death penalty for Poonawala, who is under police custody.

Also Read | Shraddha Walkar Murder Case: All That Has Happened So Far

Why 'no action' was taken by Maharashtra police?

"An inquiry should also be conducted against the police officials of Vasai and Nalasopara and Tulinj police (in Palghar district) for delayed the investigation on Shraddha's complaint. Had they acted immediately, my daughter would have been alive now," he said.  

Fadnavis had also earlier said that an inquiry will be initiated into why "no action" was taken by the police on the complaint it received from Shhradha Walkar in 2020, and added that she could have been saved had they acted in time.

Also Read | Shraddha Walkar Murder: Finding Body Parts, Narco Test, How Is Delhi Police Probing Aaftab Poonawala?

Earlier in the day, a police official from Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar police commissionerate claimed that after receiving her complaint in 2020, a police officer had visited the place in Vasai town, where Walkar and Poonawala lived together, to probe her complaint. However, Walkar had then said that she was withdrawing her complaint as the issues between her and Poonawala were resolved.

Shraddha Walkar had submitted a written complaint to Tulinj police in November 2020, in which she alleged: "Poonawala has been abusing me and beating me up. Today, he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces and throw me anyway. It’s been six months he has been hitting me. But I did not have the guts to go to police because he would threaten to kill me." 

Also Read | Aftab Killed Shraddha Not At ‘Heat Of The Moment’; Earlier Threatened Her To Chop Into Pieces, Letter Reveals

Vikas Walkar said Delhi Governor and DCP Delhi South and Maharashtra deputy CM Fadnavis have assured justice to his family.

(With inputs from PTI)