The judicial custody of Aftab Poonawala, accused of murdering his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, was extended by 14 days on Friday. Aftab was produced before a Delhi court through videoconferencing. Demanding justice for his daughter, Shraddha's father Vikas Walkar has said he wanted Aftab to get maximum punishment.
Speaking to the media after meeting Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, he said he had full faith in the judiciary. He also said that Fadnavis has assured him of justice justice. “Hope such an incident never gets repeated,” he said, adding that Aftab's family's involvement in the murder must be probed. "Aftab 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,” he said.
Blaming the inaction of Maharashtra cops, he said: “My daughter was brutally murdered. I faced many problems because of the Vasai police, if they would have helped me, my daughter would have been alive,” he said.
Shraddha 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."
In the last hearing in the case on November 26, the court had extended the judicial custody of Aftab by 13 days.
Aftab underwent narco test and multiple rounds of the polygraph test recently. Aftab allegedly strangled Shraddha in May, chopped her body int multiple pieces and disposed of them in different parts of the city. The Delhi police have reportedly recovered 13 body parts from the Mehrauli forest area but have not been able to ascertain if they belong to Shraddha. The DNA test results are not yet available.
-with PTI inputs
