Aaftab Poonawala should be hanged for killing my daughter: Shraddha Walkar's father

MUMBAI: 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.

"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.

"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.

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."

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