‘Aftab tried to kill, threatens to cut me into pieces’: Shraddha in 2020 complaint

Two years ago, Shraddha Walker had filed a hand-written complaint with the Vasai police in Maharashtra against her boyfriend Aftab Poonawalla, saying he was “assaulting” her and trying to kill her. She wrote that Aftab told her he would “cut her into pieces and throw her away”, revealed investigators, according to media reports.

Even as the police probe in the Shraddha case is almost 80 per cent complete, news reports stated that Shraddha had written a letter to the police in November 2020 that Aftab had beaten her up at a flat they shared.

According to the Delhi police, his family was aware of his violent behaviour. The police are now verifying this complaint and the action if any taken by the Vasai cops.

Also read: Shraddha murder: Advocate says fixing liability on Aftab will be hard

One of Shraddha’s co-workers, Karan, had told the police that Shraddha had shared a photograph of her bruised face with him. This was around the same time she had made a complaint to the Vasai police.

According to a report in NDTV, Shraddha said in the letter to the police (which was shared by Shraddha’s neighbour in Vasai and the police has confirmed its authenticity) that Aftab’s parents knew that he beats her and that he tried to kill her. They also knew they were living together and they visited the couple on weekends. And that she lived with him since they supposed to get married anytime soon and had the blessings of his family.

Shraddha however concluded the letter stating that henceforth she was not willing to live with him. And that any kind of physical damage should be considered coming from him as he has been blackmailing her to kill or hurt her whenever he sees her anywhere.

Also read: Shraddha murder case: Accused was inspired by Dexter, an American crime drama

Also, Shraddha had shared in the letter that on November 23, 2020 he had tried to kill her by suffocating her. She also said that he scares her and blackmails her that he would kill her, cut her up in pieces and throw her away. “It’s been six months he has been hitting me but I did not have the guts to go to the police because he would threaten to kill me,” said the letter, according to the report.

Though the letter said that Aftab was assaulting and “blackmailing” her “for six months” with threats of murder, she did not leave him for good. Also, she did not pursue the complaint with the police because his parents purportedly talked her out of it, said another news report.

It is not clear how long they lived separately but they went together for a holiday to Himachal Pradesh early this year before moving into a flat in Mehrauli in Delhi.

Shraddha’s parents, however, had lost touch with her because they didn’t approve of the inter-faith (Hindu-Muslim) relationship. Her gruesome murder was only discovered after her father registered a complaint with the police. Meanwhile, police are looking for material clues such as confirmation that some body parts found in the Mehrauli jungle belonged to Shraddha.