Aaftab Poonawala asked me not to go to police: Shraddha Walkar’s friend who alerted family

Sometime in June-July 2021, Shraddha, the friend said, had sent him a text message saying that Aaftab had been beating her and if she was not rescued, she would die. The friend said he had rushed to her house and had seen her with bruises.

He said he had warned Aaftab about filing a police complaint but Shraddha did not want to press charges and returned to Aaftab two days later.

In May this year, the friend communicated with Shraddha for the last time on Instagram. Weeks after her murder, Aaftab, the friend claimed, impersonated Shraddha and sent him messages from her phone saying she was alright.

Aaftab Poonawala, accused to have murdered his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, being brought to the Mehrauli forest area, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. (PTI Photo)

“I was under the impression it was Shraddha who was texting me. But slowly she stopped replying to my messages and then stopped seeing my messages. Her phone was switched off. I found it unusual because she had called me from Himachal Pradesh and said she was ending things with Aaftab. She discussed job interviews. She had left her job and had a few interviews lined up. But she suddenly broke all communication with me,” he said.

“I then called Aaftab and said I know she was with you before she went cold. I said we will approach the police but he said do not go to the police, you know how Shraddha is and she will come back. He could not remember the date she left. I asked him how is this possible, you have been with her for four years. He told me he was also looking for her and would update me, but he never called or replied on her whereabouts,” he said.

He then contacted more than 10 of her close friends and realised that none had spoken to her since May-end. “It did not make sense that she was not in touch with any of her friends… In September, I contacted her brother and father who asked me to meet them. I explained everything to them and said they must approach the police. Her brother and father then started contacting all her friends, just like I did, and then approached the police,” he said.

Another close friend of Shraddha recalled: “We stayed in the same building since the sixth standard and we went to college together. She came to stay with me after a fight with Aaftab in 2021. She had told her male friend that she would die that night if she was not rescued. But two days later, she went back since Aaftab threatened to harm himself.”

“She told us that he used to abuse her. That day, she had come with marks on her body. There were cigarette burns and bruises. He used to beat her,” she said.