MNS spokesperson's ‘on-spot encounter’ demand for Shraddha Walkar's killer

A day after Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut demanded "public hanging" of Shraddha Walkar's murderer, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Bala Nandgaonkar on Thursday said Aaftab Amin Poonawala, who allegedly killed Walkar and chopped her body into multiple pieces, should be encountered on the spot.

“Shraddha is the daughter of our Maharashtra… Even if this case happened in Delhi, the Maharashtra government should pay special attention to this matter and hang this Aaftab as soon as possible. So all these cases should be tried in the fast-track court. In fact, for such perverted people, ‘on-spot encounter should be done,” the MNS spokesperson said.

Walker, a call-centre employee from Mumbai, was allegedly murdered by her live-in partner Poonawala, months after they moved to the national capital. They were living in a multi-storey apartment in New Delhi's Chattarpur area.

“The killer of Shraddha should be hanged publicly and our girls should be alert while trusting any person. Call it ‘Love Jihad’ or anything else but it is our girls who are dying,” Raut had said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a section of lawyers on Thursday evening on a Delhi court premises shouted slogans against Poonawala demanding the award of the death penalty for him, who is under police custody.

Around 100 advocates, practising at Saket district courts, assembled around 3pm when they came to know that the accused will be produced before metropolitan magistrate Aviral Shukla.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled Shradha Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight.

Police said the couple used to have frequent arguments over financial issues and it is suspected that there was also a fight between them that resulted in Poonawala killing 27-year-old Walkar on the evening of May 18.