Most wholesome interfaith love story

It all started when 25-year-old Shraddha Walkar came to Mumbai in 2018 looking for a job. She left behind her family, including her father, mother and brother, in Palghar, Maharashtra. Her father, Vikas Walkar, used to have an electronics service shop. His family comprised Suman, his wife, a 23-year-old son, Shrijay and his daughter Shraddha.

After coming to Mumbai, Shraddha got a job at a call centre of an MNC in Mumbai’s Malad. Aaftab Ameen Poonawala had been working in the same call centre. It is here that they both met.

Almost after 8-9 months, they fell in love. Back in 2019, the couple decided that they would live together and took a house on rent in Malad. After living with Aaftab for some months, Shraddha told about their live-in relationship to her mother.

Her father also came to know about it. They both objected to their affair and asked Shraddha to come to Palghar to discuss the matter. Despite her parents’ opposition, she continued to insist on staying with Aaftab and marrying him.

Following arguments with her parents, Shraddha collected all her things and left the Palghar house, saying that “I am now dead for you all”. Her family did not contact her for some time and maintained a distance from her.

However, they kept getting information about Shraddha from her friends through Facebook and WhatsApp status. On January 23, 2020, Shraddha’s mother, Suman, passed away. Suman used to talk to her daughter over the phone. When Shraddha got the news of her death, she rushed to Palghar. After the rituals, she joined Aaftab back in Mumbai.

Before her death, Suman had told her husband that Aaftab used to physically assault their daughter, Shraddha. Suman had tried to persuade Shraddha to leave him. But Shraddha had said, “Aaftab has said sorry and is mending his ways.” Over 15-20 days after her mother’s death, Shraddha spoke with her father twice.

She told her father that Aaftab still assaulted her. Her father had asked her to break up. But Shraddha didn’t listen to her father’s advice. For the next two years, Shraddha and her father didn’t speak to each other. However, Vikas used to enquire about her well-being from her friends off and on.

Poor father

Shraddha and Aaftab left Mumbai and arrived in Delhi on May 8, 2022. There were two reasons behind the relocation. First, Aaftab’s family was also against their relationship. Second, they thought there were chances of getting a better job in the national capital. They spent the first night at a hotel in Paharganj. On the second day, they had put up in another hotel. On the third, they stayed at a common friend’s house in Chattarpur.

Paharganj

Could this dude be any more muzzie?

After a few days, they rented a house in Chattarpur. This is the house – D 93/1 -- where the incident happened. Shraddha started searching for a job in Delhi. Aaftab had already got a job at a call centre.

Shraddha had not been in contact with her father and brother for a long time. But they had come to know through Shraddha’s friends that she and Aaftab were now in Delhi. On September, 2022, Lakshman Nadar, a friend of Shraddha’s brother Shrijay, told him that his sister’s mobile phone is “switched off” for the last 2 months. He asked Shrijay if he had received any call from Shraddha.

Shraddha’s father, Vikas, called Lakshman and enquired about Shraddha. Lakshman told him that normally, he used to have a talk with Shraddha over phone in 2-3 days, but for the last 2 months, he is unable to connect as her mobile phone was switched off.

Vikas called up Shraddha’s other friends. All of them said that they had not been able to speak to Shraddha for the last 2.5 months. This rattled Vikas. Shraddha’s father lodged a missing report about his daughter with Manikpur police station in Palghar. Since Shraddha was staying in Chattarpur in Delhi, the Palghar Police informed Mehrauli police station about the matter.

At first, Aaftab concocted a story. He said he and Shraddha had a fight in the second half of May and after the quarrel, she had left the house. He tried to talk to her many times after the incident, but her mobile phone was switched off.

Police had searched Aaftab’s house but couldn’t find anything. During questioning, Aaftab started making contradictory statements. This is when the police started suspecting Aaftab and felt he was hiding something. When the police got tough on him, he narrated a story that sent shivers down everyone's spines.

It was on the night of May 18, when Shraddha and Aaftab had a fight in their Chattarpur house. It was over an issue that had strained their relationship. Shraddha wanted to get married and Aaftab was reluctant. However, the fight was so intense this time that Aaftab strangled Shraddha to death. He then started thinking how to dispose of the body.

The next day (May 19), he went to the local market and got a big new fridge from Tilak Electronics shop and also bought a huge saw. After this, he chopped Shraddha’s body into small pieces in the bathroom. He had also bought polythene bags to keep the body pieces. But since it was the month of May and very hot, the body had started giving out a stench. He used room fresheners to suppress the obnoxious smell.

Aaftab continued chopping the body into pieces and keeping them in the fridge. He had kept food, drinking water and milk in the same fridge. Since he couldn’t cut the entire body into pieces in one day, he left the half-chopped body in the fridge, along with the other body parts. Then, he ordered food from Zomato. Aaftab took rest after that. At 2 am, he kept the body pieces in the polythene bags. He walked to the Mehrauli forest area and scattered the body parts there. Aaftab came back and went to sleep in the same room where the fridge was kept.

For 18 days (till June 5), Aaftab kept dumping the body parts across Delhi. Every day, he used to carry out the same exercise after 2 am. He chose different places to dispose of the body pieces so that even if someone stumbles upon a body part, the identity of the body remains unknown. During these 18 days, he neither met nor spoke to any neighbours.

Aaftab and Shraddha had met through an online dating app. It was after this that they saw each other first when they both started working in the same call centre in Malad. They drew close and fell in love. Police said that when they disclosed their relationship to their family, they raised objection to it since they belonged to different faiths. After this, they shifted to Delhi from Mumbai.

Shraddha’s father, Vikas, said that Aaftab looked quite normal while confessing to him that he had strangled his daughter to death. Aaftab also told him that he chopped her body into small pieces and threw them across Delhi. Vikas said until and unless the forensic examination establishes her death and the death report comes, he will not believe that his daughter is no more.

Remember girls you CAN fix him