Aaftab accompanied Shraddha to hospital for treatment, says doctor

The doctor who treated the Mumbai girl, Shraddha Walkar, for acute shoulder and back pain in the year 2020, on Friday said that the accused Aaftab Poonawala accompanied her when she was brought to hospital.

She was admitted to Ozone Multispecialty Hospital in Nalasopara, outside Mumbai’s city limits, in 2020 for acute back and shoulder pain.

"Shraddha was brought to the hospital on December 3, 2020, and was admitted for four days. She had complained of severe back and shoulder pain with radiculopathy. She however did not reveal the cause of the injuries," Dr Shiv Prasad Shinde who treated Shraddha at Ozone Multispecialty Hospital of Nalasopara, told ANI.

He said, "Shraddha had come with Aaftab for treatment."

"We did not find any external injury marks on her body, and Aaftab was with her at the time of admission," said Shinde.

Earlier, a photo of Shraddha with minor bruises on her nose and near her right eye was also shared by her friends with the local media in Mumbai.

They claimed that she was hospitalised after the assault by Aaftab.

"She used to complain about Aaftab and his addiction. He would often fight with her and beat her too," claimed Shraddha's friend Rahul Rai while speaking to ANI.

Aaftab is accused of strangling his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into 35 pieces. The accused was allegedly high on marijuana when he committed the crime, sources said.

He was arrested on Saturday after the Delhi police started probing into a missing complaint filed by Shraddha's father Vikas Walkar.

According to the sources, the East Delhi police had found a chopped head and hand in the Trilokpuri area of Pandav Nagar police station area of the national capital in June this year, which was nearly a month after Shraddha was murdered (on May 18).

Police investigation revealed that the couple had a fight on May 18 during which Aftab killed Shraddha.

Delhi police sources said the May 18 quarrel was not the first, Aftab and Shraddha were fighting for three years.

The sources had said on Thursday that the accused Aaftab Poonawalla had charred his live-in partner's face to hide her identity.

He first chopped her body into 35 pieces and then burnt her face so that it becomes unidentifiable even if the body parts were discovered.

"During the interrogation, Aaftab revealed that he had learnt about all this on the internet, and also about how to hide the body from everyone's reach," the sources said.

On Friday, a team of three senior police officials reached Mumbai to investigate the case, and started listing friends and family members of Aaftab and Shraddha to record their statements.

Another team of Delhi police was carrying out searches in DLF Phase-3 area of Gurugram to find the remaining pieces of Shraddha’s body.