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Delhi murder: Victim’s friend alerted father her phone was off since June

ByMegha Sood and Gautam Mengle
Nov 15, 2022 12:27 AM IST

Mumbai: On September 16, Lakshman Nadar, 26, called Shaddha Walkar’s father and told him that her phone was switched off since June and that there was absolutely no activity on her social media accounts

Mumbai: On September 16, Lakshman Nadar, 26, called Shaddha Walkar’s father and told him that her phone was switched off since June and that there was absolutely no activity on her social media accounts.

New Delhi, India- November 14, 2022: A view of the house in Delh’s Chhattarpur Pahari area. Delhi Police cracked a six-month-old blind murder case, and arrested a man for allegedly killing his 28-year-old live-in partner, and for chopping her body into 35 pieces and disposing of them at different places in and around the national capital. The accused has been identified as Aftab Amin Poonawalla (28), a resident of Mumbai, who was caught on Saturday on the basis of the deceased's father's complaint and has been sent to police remand for five days, the police said on Monday, in New Delhi on Monday, November 14, 2022. (HT Photo)
New Delhi, India- November 14, 2022: A view of the house in Delh’s Chhattarpur Pahari area. Delhi Police cracked a six-month-old blind murder case, and arrested a man for allegedly killing his 28-year-old live-in partner, and for chopping her body into 35 pieces and disposing of them at different places in and around the national capital. The accused has been identified as Aftab Amin Poonawalla (28), a resident of Mumbai, who was caught on Saturday on the basis of the deceased's father's complaint and has been sent to police remand for five days, the police said on Monday, in New Delhi on Monday, November 14, 2022. (HT Photo)

Nadar, a close friend of Walkar, worked with her at a call centre in Malad in 2019, and the two were in touch till May this year. Following his information, Shraddha’s father, Vikas Madan Walkar, approached the Manikpur police station on September 17 and filed a complaint that his daughter has gone missing.

On Saturday, the Delhi Police arrested Aaftab Amin Poonawala for the gruesome murder of Walkar. Poonawala and Walkar lived together at a rented flat in south Delhi’s Chhattarpur area. According to the Delhi Police, Poonawala first strangled Walkar to death, and then chopped her body into 35 pieces.

According to Nadar, Walkar and Poonawala met on a dating app in 2019. Since their families were opposed to their relationship, they rented a place in Naigon East and lived there for around two years, he said.

Nadar said that the couple quarrelled often. “Once in 2020, Walkar had sent me a message on WhatsApp, telling me that if I did not get her out of her house, Poonawalla would kill her. We had warned Poonawalla but stopped short of reporting him to the police, as Walkar told us not to. We respected her wishes and left,” Nadar alleged.

Nadar said he last spoke to Walkar in May. “I got worried when when Shraddha did not respond to my messages or returned my calls when I tried to reach her in July, and then August,” he said.

Walkar briefly returned to her house on January 10, 2020, after her mother, Harshala, died of a prolonged illness, According to Nadar, she stayed at her Vasai residence for 15 days and then returned.

According to Sampat Patil, senior police inspector at Manikpur police station, Vikas Walkar, approached them on September 17 and submitted an application claiming that his daughter was missing. “We did not know whether the woman stayed in Mumbai or elsewhere,” Patil said.

According to Vikas Walkar’s statement to the police, he lived with his wife and daughter near GG College in Vasai village. In 2019, his daughter Shraddha began working at a call center in Malad and came in contact with Aaftab Poonawala, a resident of Deewan Maan area in Vasai West.

“We immediately formed a team and retrieved the call detail records of the couple for the last one year,” said Patil. During investigations, the Mumbai Police found that Walkar’s phone and bank accounts were inactive since May, he added.

“We called Poonawala to the police station to question him, but he said that he had shifted to Chhattarpur area in Delhi in March. He also said that the couple had a fight, and Walkar broke off with him,” said Patil.

Since Poonawala’s statements were not consistent, the Mumbai Police checked the call detail records of Walkar and found that the location of both Poonawala, and the last known detail of Walkar were in the same area. “Therefore we tipped off the Chattarpur police with a request to investigate the matter further,” said Patil.

On Saturday. inspector Dilip Samant of the Manikpur police, along with the Delhi police tracked down Poonawala and detained him, after which the Delhi Police interrogated him and cracked the case.

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