Aftab will find, hunt and kill me: Shraddha Walkar in new audio clip

Public prosecutors played in the court an audio clip from the Practo app through which Shraddha had booked a session with a psychologist and argued that the couple’s relationship had a violent past.

Shraddha Walkar, the 27-year-old woman who was allegedly killed by her live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawala in May last year, had told a psychologist online that her boyfriend had repeatedly threatened to "find, hunt and kill" her.

Special public prosecutors (SPPs) Amit Prasad and Madhukar Pandey who appeared for Delhi Police played an audio clip from the Practo app through which Shraddha had booked a session with a psychologist, before the court on Monday and argued that the couple's live-in relationship "had a violent past."

In the audio clip, Shraddha could be heard saying, "...whenever I start ranting about my anger, if he is somewhere around, anywhere in Vasai (near Mumbai), anywhere around me in this... city, he will find me, he will hunt me down, he will try to kill me, that's... the problem. I don't know (how) many times he tried to kill me... this is not the first time he tried to kill me... The way he grabbed my neck, I blacked out. I was unable to breathe for 30 seconds... Thankfully, I was able to defend myself by pulling his hair."

During its arguments in court, Delhi Police said there are "incriminating circumstances revealed through reliable and clinching evidence which form a chain of events" which leads to an irrefutable conclusion about the guilt of the accused. Meanwhile, advocate Javed Hussain, legal aid counsel (LAC) for Poonawala, sought time to respond to the arguments.

Earlier on February 21, a magisterial court committed the case to the Sessions court after taking cognisance of the 6,629-page chargesheet filed by Delhi Police on January 24. As per the chargesheet, Aftab had strangled Shraddha on May 18 and sawed her body into several pieces, which he kept in a fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli area. He then scattered the remains across Delhi, some of which have since been recovered.

Father demands fast-track court

Shraddha's father Vikas Walkar has said that in the interest of justice, the case should be heard in a time-bound manner in a fast-track court. "We request for the proceedings to be conducted in a time-bound manner in a fast-track court," he said on Monday. His counsel Seema Kushwaha said she would shortly move a petition in Delhi High Court seeking a direction for time-bound proceedings in a fast-track court.

Walkar, the complainant in the case, said he was unable to perform his daughter's last rites because the recovered body parts were kept as evidence. "In a few months, it will be an entire year since my daughter's death. When will I get the remains to complete her last rites?" he wondered in a choked voice while speaking to reporters outside the court.

A love story doomed from beginning

Aftab and Shraddha met through dating app Bumble in 2019 and later moved in together at a rented accommodation in Chhatarpur. Her parents were against the inter-faith relationship and had stopped talking to her after she decided to move to Delhi with him.

Poonawala seems to have strangled Shraddha and chopped off her body which he kept in a 300-litre refrigerator for almost three weeks at his Mehrauli residence before dumping the body parts across the city over several days.

The police said that the couple would fight regularly over issues such as marriage and who would bear the household expenses. On May 18, he strangled her to death and then set out to buy a knife and fridge.

Following a missing person's complaint filed by her father on November 10 after she became untraceable for over two months, an FIR was registered against Aftab in this connection under Sections 186, 353, 147, 148 and 149 of IPC at Prashant Vihar police station in Delhi.