Mehrauli murder case: Poonawala sent to 13-day judicial custody
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Saturday sent Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of killing his live- in partner, Shraddha Walkar, and chopping her body into 35 pieces in south Delhi’s Mehrauli, to judicial custody for 13 days, police said.
Police have initiated the legal process for production of the accused for further proceedings in the polygraph test, special commissioner of police (law and order, zone II) Sagar Preet Hooda said.
Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Walkar, 27, and sawed her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his Mehrauli residence, before dumping those across the city over several days.
The polygraph test on Poonawala went on for nearly three hours on Friday at the Forensic Science Laboratory here.
“During the session (of polygraph test) on Thursday, Poonawala was asked details about the case, what triggered him to kill Walker, if it was a planned event or he did it in a fit of rage like he claimed in the court,” said an FSL source.
“All the sequence of event that transpired ever since they started dating and how he decided to dispose of the body in such a gruesome manner. He was also asked about the kind of weapon he used to chop her body along with various other questions related to the case that could give lead to further investigation in the case,” the FSL source had said. Poonawala’s four-day police remand expired on Saturday. The accused was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody which was further extended for another five days on November 17. On Tuesday, he was sent to four more days of police custody.
The Delhi Police had seized five knives from Poonawala’s flat and sent them to FSL to ascertain if they were used in the crime. Police had earlier said the saw allegedly used by Poonawala to cut his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar’s body is yet to be recovered.
Meanwhile, a narco test on Poonawala is likely to be conducted on November 28,officials in the know of the matter said on Saturday. The Delhi Police had earlier said that the DNA test report of the victim’s body has not been received by the police.
“DNA test report (of victim’s body parts) has not been received by the police”, said Hooda. Delhi Police had taken DNA samples of Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar on November 16, so that the dumped body parts and blood sample can be matched.