-Anvitha Chelluri
For the past week, the nation has been taken aback by the dreadful tale of Shraddha Walkar, a resident of Mumbai, murdered at the age of 28 by her partner, Aaftab Poonawala. It is safe to say there isn’t a person who doesn’t know the commotion this case has put the country under. Self-admittedly, India isn’t the safest country in the world. Death, murder, rape aren’t exactly terms unfamiliar to a general population and there are a plethora of cases like this swept under the rug of complete and utter oblivion. So why does this case in particular strike such a huge deal of attention? This case not only dealt with disregarded catastrophes of physical abuse and the fear entrenched in the roots of female conditioning but also triggered a whirlwind crowd of recluse anti- muslims in what experts call “The Domino Effect.”
In reality, the stir in ignorance caused by this case is nothing if not justifiable. It is the worst degree of homicide the country has been made aware of through the public media. The 28 year old was killed on the 18th of May, through strangulation during an argument with Aaftab. The accused was said to have sliced the victim into 35 pieces and then proceeded to burn her face off to make her unrecognisable in case anyone were to ever find themselves coming across the dismembered body. Sources reveal he kept Shraddha’s body in the bathroom of their shared home for days waiting for it to decompose and sliced her body bit by bit as it became easier, after which he stored it in their fridge. “It was revealed that he first disposed off the victim’s liver and intestines and the head at the last,” the police informed. As a recent confession from the food blogger, he revealed that it took him a total of 18 days to dispose off the body in the Mehrauli Forest.
Unsurprisingly this wasn’t an act of impulse but was an act of habit, as it was soon discovered that Shraddha was abused and threatened to be killed many-er times in the same way the actual murder took place.
The Echo 