After Shraddha’s Murder, A Spate Of Cases With Similar Death Threats To Women In Interfaith Relationships

Since the Shraddha Walkar murder case came to light in November, where her live-in partner Aaftab Ameen Poonawalla killed and chopped her body into 35 pieces, there has been a spate of incidents where Hindu women have alleged similar threats by their Muslim stalkers or partners.

Two weeks ago, a woman from Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh (UP) filed a case against a man named Mohammed Muzammil for threatening to chop her into pieces like Shraddha. The case was filed at Pallavpuram Police Station.

The woman said in her complaint that the man, Muzammil, posed as Shivam to get into a relationship with her. He also exploited her financially, by making her pay for his motorcycle and mobile phone. 

She told the police that she learnt quite late in the relationship that he was not Hindu but Muslim. When she found out, he threatened her with a Shraddha-like fate if she dared tell that to anyone.

The Meerut Police informed through their official Twitter account on 18 November that Muzammil had been arrested.

In another case, the Kanpur police of UP arrested a man named Mohammed Faiz on complaint by a family that he was stalking their minor daughter and threatening her with a Shraddha-like fate if she turned him down. 

The girl’s parents were quoted in the local media as saying that the family met him last year in a train while they were on their way to Ajmer dargah. Faiz later connected with their daughter on social media, and the two began talking. 

The friendship soon turned into an obsession for Faiz, who began forcing her to marry him.  

The parents filed a case against Faiz at Kanpur’s Naubasta Police Station (FIR number 729/2022) on 25 November. It was not the first case they had filed against Faiz at the same police station. 

They had filed a case against Faiz on 17 October as well, where they said that one day, Faiz turned up at their house and threatened to slit his wrist if they did not give their daughter to him.

The police booked him under sections of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act besides IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354D (following a woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation). A day after the FIR, the police arrested him.

In yet another case, this time from Maharashtra, a 24-year-old woman filed a case against her husband Arshad Malik of trapping her in relationship with a false Hindu identity, and later mistreating her after her conversion-nikah. 

The woman said in her complaint given to the police on 1 December that when she refused to get her son circumcised as per Islamic customs, the latter threatened her with a Shraddha-like fate. Arshad told her that while Aaftab had chopped Shraddha into 35 pieces, he would chop her into 70 pieces, the woman said.

The police filed a case against Arshad for rape, criminal intimidation and causing hurt. It is not yet known if they have arrested the accused.

The Aaftab-Shraddha Case

On 11 November, the Delhi Police arrested Aaftab, 27, for murdering live-in partner Shraddha, 26.

As per police, Aaftab killed Shraddha in a premeditated murder on 18 May by strangling her, in Mehrauli area of the capital city. 

To dispose of the body, he bought a large refrigerator, chopped Shraddha’s body into 35 pieces and stored them in plastic bags. Over the next two weeks, he threw away the pieces in the nearby jungle in the nights. 

The murder came to light when Shraddha’s father Vikas Madan Walkar learnt from one of her friends that she had been unreachable over phone for several weeks, and filed a missing person complaint in Vasai (west) police station of Palghar district in Maharashtra. 

Both Aaftab and Shraddha lived in Vasai with their families when they came in contact with each other. 

They first moved in together in Vasai, much to the disapproval of her family that objected to Aaftab’s Muslim identity, before shifting to New Delhi a month before Shraddha’s murder.