‘Heat of the moment’, Aaftab tells court; no confession yet
Accused briefly breaks silence; counsel says he didn’t specify what he was talking about or if it was connected to the alleged crime
Aaftab Poonawala, a 28-year-old man accused of murdering his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar and hacking her body into 35 pieces, briefly broke his silence before a Delhi court on Tuesday, said his lawyer, who insisted that his client did not confess to the grisly crime that has shocked the country.
Poonawala was produced before metropolitan magistrate Aviral Shukla, who asked the prime accused if he knew what he had done.
“Whatever happened, took place in the heat of the moment and nothing was deliberate,” Poonawala told the judge, according to his lawyer, Avinash Kumar. Poonawala didn’t specify what he was talking about or if it was connected to alleged crime, Kumar added.
The proceedings were held in secret at 9.30am in the lock-up of the Saket court complex, even before the start of court hours, after the police submitted that the matter was sensitive.
Kumar, who was present during the remand hearing, said that his client did not make a confession and his statement to the judge couldn’t be considered as an admission.
Police officials have earlier said that they suspected domestic abuse in the past.
“He did not say anything about what he had done..He just said that whatever had happened, anything big or small, was in the heat of the moment and nothing was deliberate. He just responded to the judge’s query. So it would be incorrect to say that this was a confession to the court,” Kumar said.
He added the statement by Poonwala will, in any case, not be admissible in the court of law as evidence under the Indian Evidence Act, 1971.
Police officials earlier said that Poonawala confessed to the crime but their contention is not admissible in court unless corroborated by hard proof.
“A confession in the criminal jurisprudence would mean pleading guilty at the stage of framing of charges. In other instances, the accused may admit to the commission of crime while recording his statement before the magistrate under 164 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC),” he said. “However, even that statement is tested on the anvil of law, circumstantial evidence and other factors unearthed during an investigation,” he further added.
Poonawala’s counsel also said that the judge asked his client whether he had any grievances with the police or any sign of physical harm.
“He told the court that the police have been cooperating with him and there is no problem he is facing from the investigating agency,” the counsel said. Another metropolitan magistrate Vijayshree Rathore, meanwhile, allowed the police application for conducting a polygraph test on Poonawala, who had consented to the controversial exercise.
A panel of psychologists on Tuesday night carried out the polygraph test on Poonawala at the forensic science laboratory (FSL) in Rohini, asking the suspect at least 50 questions.
The procedure continued till late Tuesday and it was not immediately known if it yielded any expected results.
The gruesome murder was unearthed on Monday after Poonawala ostensibly told the police that he murdered his partner Walkar in their Chhattarpur Pahadi flat six months ago, chopped her body into at least 35 pieces for over two days, stored them in a refrigerator for about three months, and dumped the body parts piece by piece in different parts of south Delhi and Gurugram.
The Police later said that the couple fought over finances on May 18 – three days after they moved into the two-room rented flat.
But other than his confession and circumstantial clues, the police has not made public any major pieces of evidence that investigators may have recovered. Investigators found bone fragments from forests in Chhattarpur and Gururgram, and found some bloodstains in the flat but forensics are yet to conclusively prove that they belong to Walkar.
They also found a saw in the house, but are yet to say if it is linked to the murder cover-up.
The court extended Poonawala’s police custody by four more days.
“In view of the reasons stated by investigating officer, it is the considered opinion of this court that further remand of the accused be authorised in police custody for the purpose of ensuring conclusion of investigation in the matter. Accordingly, remand of accused is hereby authorized in police custody for further period of four days till November 26,” the magistrate said in the order.
He also noted that the police found a rough sketch from his house and suspected that it may indicate where Poonawala allegedly dumped the dismembered body parts.
Poonawala and Walkar, originally from Vasai near Mumbai, were in a relationship and moved to Delhi in May 2022.
Walkar was estranged from her family who opposed her relationship with Poonawala but the incident came to light when a friend informed Walkar’s father, Vikas Madan Walkar, that he had not heard from her for at least two months.
Her father then informed Mumbai Police in October. A month-long probe by Mumbai and Delhi Police led investigators to the flat in south Delhi where Poonawala allegedly murdered Walkar.
Kumar said he interacted with Poonawala for the first time on Tuesday and found him calm, composed and well-read.
“He was calm and cool, even while interacting with me and when the judge was interacting with him. I asked him whether he was satisfied with his counsel, to which he responded in the affirmative. On my question, as to whether his parents were looking to engage a private lawyer, Poonawala said his parents weren’t in touch with any other lawyer,” Kumar said.
When asked if he met his parents, Poonawala went silent, the lawyer added.
Advocate Harshit Sagar, the legal aid counsel who represented Poonawala in the polygraph application, said that the police sought the test to establish the chain of events.
In a separate proceeding, the Delhi high court dismissed a petition by a lawyer who sought transfer of the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and called it a “publicity interest litigation”.