Shraddha Walkar murder accused Aftab Poonawala seeks bail, hearing tomorrow

New Delhi, Dec 16: Accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar murder case, Aftab Amin Poonawala has now moved a court here on Friday seeking bail, his lawyer said. The hearing is likely to take place on Saturday before Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari, he added.

As the initial investigation in the case is complete and the chargesheet is yet to be filed, there is no purpose in keeping the accused in judicial custody, the lawyer told news agency PTI. On December 9, Poonawala's judicial custody was extended by 14 days.

Bones found in Mehrauli forest area belong to Shraddha Walkar

DNA extracted from bone pieces recovered in the Mehrauli forest area by the Delhi Police has matched with samples of Shraddha's father Vikas Walker, clarifying that they belonged to her. The police had recovered 13 bone pieces from the area while searching for Walkar's body parts. She was allegedly strangled and her body sawed into 35 pieces and disposed of in various parts of the national capital by her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala.

''The police has received the DNA report of the bones found. The DNA of the bones matches with the DNA samples of Walkar's father,'' PTI quoted sources as saying.

The bone samples were sent for DNA analysis to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. The report of Poonawala's polygraph test was submitted to the police by the forensic sciences lab on Wednesday.

Aftab used Chinese knife to dismember Shraddha's body:

Aftab had earlier reportedly confessed during the narco analysis test that he dismembered Shraddha's body into pieces using a Chinese knife (cleaver). Aftab has also confessed that he threw the weapon in the bushes near his office in Gurugram, sources close to a news channel said. Aftab also informed the Delhi cops that he dumped her severed head in Mehrauli forest. Another report claims that he cut her hands first. The accused has also revealed that Shraddha's mobile was thrown in the waters of Mumbai coast and it has not been recovered yet.

A love story doomed from the start

Aftab and Shraddha met through a dating app Bumble in 2019 and later moved in together at a rented accommodation in Delhi's Chhattarpur area. Her parents were against the inter-faith relationship and had stopped talking to her after she decided to move to Delhi with him.

Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner, Shraddha Walkar, and sawed her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his Mehrauli residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli, before dumping them across the city over several days in the dark of night.

Aftab was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody, which was further extended by five days on November 17. On November 22, he was sent to police custody for four days. The court on November 26, sent him to judicial custody for 13 days.