By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-11-24 07:35:02
By all
accounts, Shraddha Walkar was in a toxic relationship with her live-in partner
Aaftab Poonawala, and he regularly beat her up and threatened to kill her. In an
old (November 2020) letter of complaint which Shraddha wrote to the Tilunj
police station in Vasai under the jurisdiction of the Mumbai Police has now
been accessed by the media, she had said as much. But it is being reported that
when the police went to investigate, at first the family did not allow her to
meet them on various pretexts and later she met the investigating officer she
withdrew her complaint in writing by saying that she had lodged it in a fit of
anger. After that, the police had nothing much to do in the matter. Still, it
is being reported that the Mumbai police is investigating what action was taken
on the complaint.
It is
strange and disturbing that an educated girl like Shraddha, who also had a fair
degree of independence as she was employed and earning, could submit herself totally
to Poonawala in such an abject manner. Maybe it was because she was afraid she
had nowhere to go if Poonawala left her as she had broken all connections with
her parents when she eloped with him. But still, it defies logic that a girl
like Shraddha could tolerate such demonic behaviour from Poonawala for so long,
in Mumbai and even when they relocated to Delhi. She must have known that there
were NGOs that helped women in distress and she should have approached them.
Yet she remained in that one-sided relationship and allowed Poonawala to
dominate her.
The result
is for all to see. He carried out his threat of killing her and chopping her
body into pieces. The heartless manner in which he committed the crime also proved
that maybe he never loved her. Shraddha, due to her love for him or maybe due
to her fear, did not recognize it or if she did, tried to argue with herself
that he would change and start loving her. But that was never to be and
Shraddha paid with her life for loving and eloping with the wrong guy.