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Shraddha Walker was an Indian woman who was brutally murdered by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala in 2022. Reportedly, after strangling her to death, Aftab chopped off her body into 35 pieces and disposed them of in the forest area of Chhatarpur in Delhi.
Wiki/Biography
Shraddha Vikash Walker was born in 1995 (age 27 years; at the time of death) in Vasai, Maharashtra.
A childhood picture of Shraddha Walker
In 2015, she pursued a mass media programme at the VIVA Institute of Technology in Virar, Maharashtra, but she dropped out in her final year.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 3″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Shraddha Walker belonged to a Hindu family in Vasai, Maharashtra.
Parents & Siblings
Her father’s name is Vikash Madan Walker, and her brother’s name is Shreejay Walker. Reportedly, Shraddha lost her mother, Suman Madan Walker, earlier.
Shraddha Walker’s childhood picture with her parents and younger brother Shreejay Walker (in the lap)
Religion
Shraddha Walker followed Hinduism.
Caste
Shraddha Walker belonged to the Koli caste of Hinduism.
Address
C-504, Sanskruti Apartment, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Near G. G. College, Vasai West, District Palghar, Maharashtra
Career
Customer Service Representative
Reportedly, Shraddha worked as a Customer Service Representative from April 2017 to March 2018.
Sales Manager
According to sources, Shraddha worked at a retail sports shop in Dahisar, the northernmost neighbourhood of Mumbai, as a Sales Manager (2018-2020). Shraddha, however, quit her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and gave the final exams of the mass media programme.
Team Leader
After giving her BMM examinations, she joined an IT firm, where she was promoted to the designation of a team leader from a customer service representative.
Relationships/Affairs
Aftab Poonawala
An Online Love
Reportedly, Shraddha Vikas Walker, while she was working at an IT-based call centre, met Aftab Poonawala in Mumbai through the dating app ‘Bumble’ in 2018. According to sources, Aftab, a food blogger, was working as a graphic designer when he met Shraddha online. Soon, the duo fell in love and planned to stay together.
Aftab and Shraddha
Disapproval From Parents
As claimed by some media outlets, Aftab and Shraddha were together for three years. According to reports, after receiving disapproval from their parents, the couple shifted to Delhi in March 2022 and started living in a rented house in the Chhatarpur area, Mehrauli. Reportedly, Shraddha left her home and told her parents that being an adult, she could take decisions in her life.
A Violent Relationship
In an interview, Shraddha’s friend, Rajat Shukla, revealed that Shraddha once told her friends that Aftab would often beat her, and she wanted to leave him but couldn’t do so. Rajat Shukla mentioned that Shradhha told her friends that she was in a relationship with Aftab since 2018. Rajat Shukla said,
Today suddenly the news flashed on the mobile of her murder. I was shaken to the core of my soul that my friend has been murdered. She had told us in 2019 that she was in a relationship since 2018. They lived together. Initially, they lived happily, but then Shraddha started saying that Aaftab beats her. She wanted to leave him but couldn’t do so.”
Death
Loved To Pieces
Reportedly, Shraddha and Aftab, after shifting to Delhi, had arguments frequently as Shraddha allegedly used to force him to get married to her. Some reports claim that the couple decided to go for a trip to the hills in the month of March and April to start afresh. On 18 May 2022, after being allegedly pressurised by Shraddha for marriage, Aftab strangled Shraddha to death and chopped off her body into 35 pieces, which were kept in a 300-litre refrigerator for nearly eighteen days by him in the rented flat in Delhi; he disposed of Shraddha’s body pieces in a row in and around the city in the midnight. Some sources claim that Shraddha and Aftab would often fight over household items and daily expenses.
The refrigerator in which Aftab kept Shraddha’s body in pieces
Premeditated Murder
According to some media outlets, Aftab watched many crime movies and web series to execute the murder. Reportedly, Aftab formulated the plan from ‘Dexter,’ an American crime drama web series, which shows the life of a man who commits crimes in the night and spends his days solving them. According to Delhi police sources, Aftab used a mini saw to chop Shraddha’s body, and he threw her clothes into a garbage van. To avoid suspicion, Aftab used Shraddha’s social media and paid her credit card bills till June 2022.
The Trace and Arrest of Aftab Poonawala
Reportedly, in September 2022, one of Shraddha’s friends informed her father that she was not in contact with his daughter for almost 2.5 months following which Shraddha’s father filed a missing report at Manickpur police station in Vasai, Maharashtra on 12 October 2022; however, the case was transferred to Mehrauli police station in New Delhi based on Shraddha’s last location.
The missing FIR filed by Shraddha’s father, Vikash Madan Walkar
Her father suspected Aftab’s involvement in the disappearance of his daughter. According to sources, on 3 November 2022, Aftab was called by the Mumbai police for questioning, where he said that Shraddha had left the house in May after a fight. Aftab was arrested on 11 November 2022 from his house in Chhatarpur under the IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed).
Accused Aftab Poonawala, along with Delhi police personnel, at Mehrauli Police Station in New Delhi on November 14, 2022
In an interview, Ankit Chauhan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South Delhi, told the media that Aftab confessed his offence and said that he disposed of Shraddha’s body in the forest area near Chhatarpur Enclave. Ankit Chauhan said,
The accused told us that he chopped her body into pieces and disposed them in forest areas near Chhatarpur Enclave. He has been arrested and investigation is on.”
Accused Aftab Poonawala being taken to the forest area in Chhatarpur, Delhi, where he allegedly disposed of pieces of Shraddha’s body
Aftab was charged with murder in the Shraddha Walker murder case by the Saket Court in Delhi on 9 May 2023. During the announcement of the order, ASJ Manisha Khurana Kakkar stated,
On May 18, 2022, after 6:30 am, you committed the murder of Shraddha Walkar and the offence is punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Between May 18 and October 18, knowing that offence has been committed, you cut her body into pieces with an intention to disappear evidence, and disposed of her body in Chattarpur and in other places. You have, thereby, committed the offence of disappearance of evidence.”
Facts/Trivia
- Her name is also spelt as Shraddha Walkar.
- Shraddha Walker used to smoke weed.
- According to sources, Shraddha, as a teen, and her father’s relationship was so strained that she told her friends and teachers in college that she did not have a father and was the only person earning in the family.
- Reportedly, accused Aftab would take the pieces of Shraddha’s body in a black foil and throw them into the forest area without the foil so that the animals could eat that. He would also feed some of the pieces to the strays by himself.
- According to reports, Shraddha’s father, Vikash Walker, looked at the case from the ‘love jihad’ angle and demanded the death penalty for the accused. Vikas Walker, in an interview, said,
I suspected a love jihad angle. We demand the death penalty for Aftab. I trust Delhi Police and the probe moving in the right direction. Shraddha was close to her uncle and didn’t talk to me much. I was never in touch with Aftab. I lodged the first complaint in Mumbai’s Vasai.”
- An investigation revealed that Shraddha had complained to the police at Tilunj in Vasai, Maharashtra, stating that she feared she would be cut into pieces by Aftab. She reportedly complained to the police through a letter, dated 23 November 2020, after Aftab beat her up at the flat where they lived together. She wrote,
Today he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares me and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces and throw me 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.”
Shraddha Walker’s letter to the police at Tilunj in Vasai, Maharashtra