DNA extracted from bone pieces recovered in the Mehrauli forest area by the Delhi Police in connection with the grisly Shraddha Walkar murder case has matched with samples of her father, police sources said on Thursday, December 15. The police had recovered 13 bone pieces from the area while searching for Walkar's body parts. She was allegedly strangled and her body sawed into 35 pieces and disposed of in various parts of the national capital by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala.
"The police has received the DNA report of the bones found. The DNA of the bones matches with the DNA samples of Walkar's father," a source said. The bone samples were sent for DNA analysis to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. The report of Poonawala's polygraph test was submitted to the police by the forensic sciences lab on Wednesday.
Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar, on December 9, had demanded that the accused be hanged to death for "brutally killing" his daughter. Blaming the Vasai police in Maharashtra, he said his daughter would have been alive had they acted on her complaint against Poonawala in 2020. He also demanded that an inquiry be conducted against the family members of the accused and they be given strictest possible punishment.
"Aaftab Poonawala killed my daughter brutally, he should get a strict punishment. He should be hanged to death for killing my daughter...There should be a stern action against whosoever is involved in the case," Walkar told reporters in Mumbai after meeting Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya.
He was addressing a press conference for the first time after his daughter's sensational murder came to light in November.
"There should be an inquiry against Poonawala's family members, including his parents and brother, and they should be given maximum punishment. Whoever is involved in this conspiracy of killing, should also be punished," he said.
"Due to the death of my daughter, my family members and I are sad and cannot forget the incident. Due to stress, I am also feeling unwell. Whatever happened to her is very saddening and should not be happen with anybody else," he said.
Walkar said Delhi and Vasai police were conducting a joint probe into the case, which was now going on properly. "But I was annoyed by the non-cooperation of Tulinj and Manikpur police in Vasai (town in Palghar district)...Had they acted swiftly, my daughter would have been alive now or there would have been much help in collecting evidence," he added. He said he has full faith in law and judiciary.
Walkar demanded an inquiry against the police officials in Vasai, Nalasopara and Tulinj (in Palghar district) for their delay in taking action on his daughter's complaint against Poonawala. Shraddha had submitted a written complaint to Tulinj police in November 2020, in which she alleged: "Poonawala has been abusing me and beating me up. Today, he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me up in pieces and throw me anyway. It's been six months he has been hitting me. But I did not have the guts to go to police because he would threaten to kill me.”