JOIN USMehrauli murder: Aftab Poonawala sent to 13-day judicial custody; police grill woman who visited his house
A Delhi Court on Saturday sent Aftab Amin Poonawala, accused of brutally killing his live-in partner in south Delhi's Mehrauli, to 13-day judicial custody as the police grilled a woman who visited his residence after the murder.
Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha 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.
A senior Tihar prison official said Poonawala was kept in jail number four where first time offenders are lodged.
He was medically examined following due procedure. He is not alone in the cell but all precautions regarding his safety and security are being taken, the official said.
The accused has been sent to judicial custody for 13 days, police said.
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.
Police said they have also questioned the woman who visited Poonawala's residence after Walkar murder.
Poonawala came in contact with the woman, a psychologist, through a dating application and called her to his residence, police said.
According to police sources, the pieces of Walkar's body were kept inside the refrigerator when he called the psychologist at his place.
Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order, Zone II) Sagar Preet Hooda said the legal process to produce the accused for further proceedings in the polygraph test.
The polygraph test on Poonawala went on for nearly three hours on Friday at the Forensic Science Laboratory here. Poonawala reached the FSL at Rohini here for his third session of the test at 4 pm and left after 6:30 pm, police said.
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.
The Delhi Police said it is yet to receive the DNA test report in connection with the murder case.
The blood samples of the father and brother of Walkar have been collected for Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) matching with the body parts that have been recovered till now.