Shraddha murder: Accused Aaftab Poonawalla moves Delhi court for bail

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Shraddha Walkar murder case accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala on Friday moved his bail application in Delhi's Saket court.

His bail plea is likely to be heard on Saturday (December 17).

The court on December 9 extended Poonawalla's judicial custody for 14 days.

Delhi Police had submitted before the court that the investigation was in progress and requested for extension of his judicial custody.

Poonawalla, who is accused of killing his live-in partner Walkar and then chopping her body into 35 pieces is currently lodged in the Tihar jail.

The brutality of the murder was officially confirmed after the DNA extracted from the bone pieces recovered in the Mehrauli forest matched with her father's samples, sources said on December 15.

The Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Sagar Preet Hooda, had said that the police have received the DNA test report from the CFSL and the polygraph test from the FSL, Rohini.

However, he refrained from officially announcing the death of Walkar as the third, narco test report was still awaited. The post-narco test of Poonawalla had also concluded on December 2. His test was conducted inside the Tihar prison by the FSL officials.

Poonawalla was arrested on November 12. His polygraph test report was submitted to the police by the Forensic Sciences Lab (FSL) on December 14.

The Delhi Police teams investigating the case had recovered 13 bone pieces after the accused told the investigators that he chopped her body into several pieces and dumped them into the forest area.

The blood samples were also recovered, from bathroom and kitchen by the forensic officials in the Chattarpur house, where both Poonawalla and Walkar had shifted on May 15, three days before her murder.

The bone samples were sent for DNA analysis to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. "It is a positive development and a push to the ongoing investigation. We will be able to present a powerful case now in the court," said an official.

"The autopsy of the bones will be conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The investigators will prepare a questionnaire and send it to the medics who will prepare the autopsy report which will help gain all relevant information regarding the case," said the sources.

As all the recovered body parts are decomposed, it is very difficult to get any significant result from the autopsy, said an official, adding that a portion of jaw or a fragment of skull recovered may help investigators in determining the time of death by the carbon dating process.

Meanwhile, Delhi L-G V.K. Saxena has approved a proposal of Delhi Police for appointment of Special Public Prosecutors, Madhukar Pandey and Amit Prasad, Advocates, to represent the state in the Shraddha Walkar murder case.

"Advocate Madhukar Pandey and Advocate Amit Prasad will accordingly represent the Delhi Police as Special Public Prosecutors in the matter," officials said.

Walkar and Poonawalla had met through the dating app 'Bumble' in 2018. They had come to Delhi on May 8 and shifted to the Chattarpur area on May 15. On May 18, Poonawalla allegedly killed Shraddha, chopped her body into 35 pieces and dumped them across various places over a period of 18 days.