Delhi court allows police to obtain voice sample of Aftab Poonawala

New Delhi, Dec 23: Delhi court on Friday allowed the city police's application to obtain voice sample of Aftab Amin Poonawala, accused of brutally killing her his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar in Delhi's Mehrauli and dismembering her body. The voice sample test will be conducted on Monday morning at the CBI headquarters, the court said.

Earlier on Thursday, the court had dismissed Poonawala's bail plea as withdrawn and not pressed, days after he claimed he had no inkling of his lawyer moving a bail application.

Poonawala, accused of killing Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into pieces, appeared before the court on Thursday through video conference and said he wished to withdraw the bail application. "Applicant (Poonawala) submits that he does not want to press the bail application at the present stage and seeks to withdraw it. Bail petition dismissed as withdrawn and not pressed," Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari said.

During the proceedings that started around 11 am, the judge asked Poonawala twice whether he was willing to file or withdraw the bail application. After Poonawala informed the court about his decision to withdraw the plea, the judge told his advocate M S Khan that once the accused had signed the vakalatnama he had authorized the counsel to represent him in the legal proceedings. "It was because of a communication gap (between Khan and Poonawala). It will not happen again," Khan told the court.

Khan also informed the court that he met Poonawala on Monday for around 50 minutes during which his client told him about withdrawing the plea. At the last hearing on December 17, Poonawala informed the court that though he had signed the vakalatnama he was not aware that a bail petition would be filed on his behalf. Khan had then sought time from the court to meet Poonawala and seek his instructions.

Aftab, who was arrested in November, underwent narco test and multiple rounds of polygraph tests. According to reports, Aftab stated that he has no remorse even if he is hanged for the murder of Shraddha during the polygraph tests at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Rohini. He further said that will be remembered as a hero when he enters (Jannat) paradise and will be offered 'Hoors'.

Aftab also admitted that while he was in relationship with Shraddha, he was also having affairs with more than 20 Hindu girls. Aftab reportedly met all his alleged girlfriends on 'Bumble' dating app. It seems that he had a very close relations with some of his girlfriends.

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.