Several social media users are falsely claiming that Aaftab Amin Poonawala, the accused in the gruesome murder case of Shraddha Walkar, belongs to the Parsi community and is not a Muslim.
BOOM found that the claim is false; the accused Poonawala is a Muslim by religion.
The gory details of the murder of Shraddha Walkar, a 27 year old Vasai resident, who moved in with her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala after they reportedly met each other on a dating app in 2019, has shaken the country. According to reports, Poonawala murdered Walkar and chopped her body into pieces after a fight in their rented apartment in Delhi's Chhattarpur area in May, 2022. The severed body parts of Walkar were stored in a fridge purchased by Poonawala after the crime was committed. The duo had reportedly shifted to Delhi together after their families disagreed to accept the inter-faith relationship. Poonawala, who is reported to be inspired by the American series Dexter before killing Walkar, is going to face a narcoanalysis test for further investigation as per a Delhi court order, reported The Indian Express.
After details of the case emerged, social media users began speculating about Poonawala's religion.
One of the posts claims, "Aftab Shivdasani as a Sindhi. Similarly, Aftab Poonawala is also a Parsi, today his father Niranjan Amin Poonawala has filed his bail application in Tis Hazari Court Delhi, now WhatsApp universities blind devotees have been locked otherwise social sites will be on fire for two days".
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Another post reads, "Aftab ponamwala is the name of the guy. He was a parsi. Not that it matters but ppl will again paint it as hindu muslim conflict. It was a inhumane act against a innocent girl." (sic.)
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a keyword search for "Aaftab Poonawala" and found an Indian Express report about the murder accused's background details. The report stated that Poonawala used to run a food blogging page on Instagram named "hungrychokro_escapades".
Taking a cue, we then looked into the profile and found a photograph of Poonawala with a caption, "Mandatory Instagram picture: candid of food styling, as a page is incomplete without at least one of those, cuz chehra dikhana important hai -Every Influenca ever-"
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We also noticed a hashtag on the post "hungrychokro" that led us to the Instagram profile of Poonawala named "thehungrychokro" including several pictures of him. When searched, we found a 2014 comment from Poonawala on a post where he identified himself as a Muslim in response to a query about his religious identity.
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Poonawala wrote, "I am a Muslim and the other term you're is Hindu. Lord Krishna is the God of Hindus. May I ask why the certain inquisitiveness about my religion???".
BOOM also accessed the FIR copy of the case which states that Poonawala is a Muslim. The statement of Walkar's father reads, "In 2018, my daughter Shraddha Vikas Walkar used to work in a call center in Mumbai's Malad where a boy named Aaftab Amin Poonawala was also working. After about 8-9 months, we came to know that my daughter Shraddha Vikas Walkar and Aaftab Amin Poonawala are in a relationship. My daughter had told my wife in the 2019 that she has to live in a live-in relationship with Aaftab Amin Poonawala due to which I and my wife had forbidden her because I am a Hindu and my caste is Koli while the boy is a Muslim. We don't do Inter-religion/Inter caste marriage here."
It further states, "When we refused, my daughter Shraddha Vikas Walkar said, 'I am 25 years old and I have every right to take my decisions, I want to live in a relationship with Aaftab Amin Poonawala, I am not your daughter from today onwards'. She started leaving the house with her belongings after saying this and then, I and my wife tried to convince her a lot but she did not agree and left our house and went for a live-relationship with Aaftab Amin Poonawala."