‘Aftab’s parents knew about his violent nature’

Aftab Poonawalarsquos parents would visit him and his livein partner Shraddha Walkar every weekend when the couple lived in Vasai and were aware of their sonrsquos violent behaviour said a former colleague of WalkarKaran B Walkarrsquos team leader when she worked in Mumbai said it was Aftabrsquos father Amin Poonawala who pleaded with Walkar not to go ahead with her complaint against his son two years agoldquoIt was his Amin Poonawalarsquos strategy to apologise and persuade her to withdraw a written complaint against Aftab else he would have landed in a thick legal soup had the FIR been registered against him in November 2020rdquo Karan told middayAlso read Shraddha murder case Shersquod be alive if our cops had acted says FadnavisAccused Aftab PoonawalaldquoIf you Amin Poonawala are aware that your son is violent by nature you should have told the girl to leave him forever But you served a fragile girl before your son who is a beast Shraddha was asked by the parents of Aftab Poonawala to give him a second chance and she got convinced as she did not want to spoil the life of a man whom she lovedrdquo Karan said adding ldquoHad she not been convinced and registered the FIR she would be alive todayrdquoOn November 23 2020 Walkar had submitted a complaint to the police narrating the severe beating and threats by Aftab She also wrote that Aftabrsquos parents were aware of the risks to her life due to their sonParents failedDr Varkha Chulani a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at Lilavati Hospital said ldquoIf Aftab had tendencies of rage and uncontrolled violence it was the duty of his parents to get him evaluated and treated In India the tendency of people to overlook aggressive behaviour in their children and use terms like lsquowoh gussawala hairsquo and condone bad behaviour leads to nonrecognition of real psychological challengesrdquoAnother psychologist Dr Arti Shroff from Kemps Corner said ldquoThe parents should first identify whether the person has an anger issue and is not able to remain in control of the behaviour and action is he violent towards others or himself etc After identifying these things they should have a conversation with him The parents should support the fact that the child will need some professional help to modify hisher behaviour and deal with hisher rage and anger issuesrdquoWalkarrsquos friends told the police that Aftab was a drug addictldquoDrugs contribute to the aggressive behaviour of a person The parents should make sure that the child is not taking any sort of substances that could cause moodaltering behaviour Every girl should always raise a red flag if they are subjected to any kind of physical abuse They should be very cautious of the individualrdquo Dr Shroff addedlsquoAftab didnrsquot reply to my messagesrsquoWhile the Delhi police have learnt that Aftab was behaving as if nothing had happened a close friend of Walkar has told Manikpur police in Vasai that all her social media accounts except Instagram had been deactivatedAftab apparently used Walkarrsquos Instagram account to chat with her friends and give them the impression that she was hale and heartyWhen her friends stopped getting messages from Walkar after May 18 the friend sent a series of messages to Aftab via Instagram on September 15 but he didnrsquot respond She then texted him asking him to ldquotell Shraddha to call merdquo Aftab claimed to have killed Walkar on May 18 but CCTV footage of October 18 showed him carrying two bags on his shoulder suggesting that he had been disposing of the body parts until recentlyAfter killing Walkar Aftab had been living his life as if nothing had happened His father Amin Poonawala was in constant touch with him On June 5 Amin despatched 37 packets of Aftabrsquos belongings from Vasai to Delhi through packers and movers Just a fortnight before he killed Walkar and cut her into pieces Aftab had come to Vasai to help his parents and brother shift out of the house where he had spent his childhood