People angry over Mehrauli killing to take out candle marches: VHP

New Delhi: People "angry" over the gruesome killing of 27-year-old Shradha Walkar will take out candle marches in the city on Thursday to demand capital punishment to the accused, Aaftab Amin Poonawala, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) said.

The candle marches will be taken out from eight different locations in South Delhi's Mehrauli area at 6 pm today to also demand enactment of stringent laws against "illegal religious conversion and love jihad" in the national capital, the VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal told PTI on Thursday.

"The people angry over the gruesome murder of Shraddha Walker will take out the marches in Meharuli to pay tribute to the victim, demand speedy trial of her murder case and award of capital punishment to the accused within three months," the VHP leader said.

"They will also demand enactment of stringent laws against illegal religious conversion and love jihad," he added.

The people's candle march has been backed by the VHP and various other groups, Bansal said.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled 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 Walkar on the evening of May 18.