Terribly disturbed and dejected Shraddha’s father, Vikas Walker on Tuesday demanded death penalty for Aaftab while also suspecting a “love jihad” angle behind the incident.
“I suspected a love jihad angle. We demand the death penalty for Aaftab. I trust Delhi Police and the probe is moving in the right direction. Shraddha was close to her uncle and didn’t talk to me much. I was never in touch with Aaftab. I lodged the first complaint in Mumbai’s Vasai,” he said.
Vikas Walker also said, “I had spoken to Shraddha last in 2021. I used to take information about her from her friend. She did not talk to me much. I did not know that she had shifted to Delhi. Her friend told me that she is in Delhi. I thought that she was in Bangaluru. Aaftab has got a lot of time to finish the evidence.”
Meanwhile, friends of Shraddh, have narrated their side of the story, painting a picture of Shraddha as they knew her.
Shraddha’s friends who were from Maharashtra’s Palghar said that initially, the couple lived happily, but things deteriorated between them and she wanted to break the relationship.
Rajat Shukla, Shraddha’s friend, 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 Sharddha started saying that Aftab beats her. She wanted to leave him but couldn’t do so.”
Rajat also said that it had become “very difficult” for her to come out of that relationship, adding that “her life had become like hell”. “While shifting to Delhi, the decision was taken with their mutual consent that they would do a job there. After shifting to Delhi, our contact with her nearly broke,” he added.
Laxman Nadir, another friend of Shraddha from Palghar, detailed the circumstances under which they approached the police. “She had contacted me two months ago. She did not reply to any of my texts since August. Her phone was switched off. That is when it became a point of concern to me that I should start reaching out to the people. When I got no update, I finally told her brother that I had spoken to her for the last time in July. So it’s better if we reach out to the police and seek their help,” he said.