"Campaigning for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in poll-bound Gujarat, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma referred to Shraddha murder case in south Delhi’s Mehrauli and said, “Somebody from the police asked Aaftab Poonawala, ‘why do you date only Hindu women?’ To this, he said Hindus are emotional.” Addressing an election rally in Gujarat’s Dhansura, Sarma said that the country needs a strict law against Love Jihad. “A boy named Aaftab Poonawala from Mumbai convinced Shraddha Walkar to come to Delhi, assuring her to get married. However, he didn’t get married and instead killed her and chopped her body into 35 pieces. He kept her mutilated body inside a fridge and in the meantime, he invited other women to his flat for dates,” the Assam chief minister said. “When the police asked him, ‘why do you bring only Hindu women?’ Aaftab said Hindus are emotional. This is not just the story of Aaftab, there are several similar Aaftab-Shraddha incidents in the country. There is a strong need for a stringent law against Love Jihad,” Sarma said. Aaftab murdered his live-in partner Shraddha on 18 May, 2022. During his confession, the 28-year-old trained chef said, "More than a week before the murder, I had made up my mind to kill Shraddha. Even on that day, Shraddha and I had a fight. I was determined to kill her when she suddenly became emotional and started crying. So I held back for later.""