In the latest development in the gruesome Shraddha Walkar murder case, accused Aftab Amin Poonawala on Friday moved a bail plea in Delhi’s Saket Court. Aftab is currently under police custody. He filed the bail peal saying that keeping him in jail will hamper his career and future. However, later Aftab through an email informed the court that the bail application was moved ‘erroneously’.
Aftab’s bail plea was to be heard on Saturday before Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari. After Aftab sent the mail to the judge seeking to withdraw the bail, Judge Vrinda Kumari decided to talk to Aftab via video conferencing at around 11:30 AM. During the video conferencing, Aftab said that although he signed the Vakalatnama, he was not aware that it was for the bail.
When asked if his bail plea should be pending, he said, “I would like that my counsel talks to me and withdraws the bail application.”
Earlier, Abhilash Kumar, who is the legal counsel of accused Aftab Poonawala, had said that the investigation in the case has been done and keeping the accused in the custody any further will serve no purpose.”
Keeping Aftab in judicial custody now will only damage his career and future, the bail plea contended.
This comes after Aftab’s judicial custody was extended for 14 days on December 9 after the DNA of the bones found in Mehrauli forest and Gurugram matched with the DNA sample of Shraddha Walkar’s father and brother. Police had recovered 13 bones from Mehrauli forest and sent those for forensic testing. This finding by the Central Forensic Laboratory (CFSL) establishes that 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar was murdered.
While the reports of the polygraph test conducted on Aftab have been received by the Delhi Police from Rohini FSL, the report of the Narco test is yet to be out. Reportedly, the bones had signs of contact with a sharp-edge object and an autopsy of the bones might be conducted soon.
Shraddha Walkar’s murder sent shockwaves across the country
After the Delhi Police detained Poonawala on November 12, the shocking revelations surrounding Shraddha Walkar’s murder stunned the whole country. The 28-year-old admitted during questioning that he killed Shraddha Walkar, dissected her body, and dumped the pieces about the nation’s capital.
The corpse of Shraddha, who had been murdered, was sawed into 35 pieces on May 18 and kept in a 300-litre refrigerator at Poonawala’s home in Mehrauli, south Delhi, for over three weeks before being dumped throughout the city over a number of days.