Court allows police to quiz Poonawala for 5 days, conduct his narco test

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday permitted the city police to question Mehrauli killing accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala for five more days in its custody, while another judge allowed his narco analysis test to unravel the sensational case after he consented to undergo the forensic procedure.

Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla passed the order after the accused was produced before him through video conferencing, considering the threat perception to Poonawala due to the surcharged atmosphere in the court premises which also witnessed protest from around 100 lawyers.

The lawyers assembled in the court premises shouting slogans against Poonawala and demanded death penalty for him.

Prior to the production of the accused before the court on the expiry of his earlier five-day custodial interrogation, Delhi Police moved a plea before the judge in a packed courtroom, seeking the accused's production before the court virtually, due to the possibility of attack by "some religious outfits and miscreants" on the accused, which was allowed.

"I am aware of the sensitivity of the matter, the media coverage and the public traction," the judge said, while allowing the police plea.

The hearing of his further custody was held in the absence of media and those unconnected to the case.

After the proceedings, the court sources informed that the accused was sent to five more days of custodial interrogation at the hands of police which had sought 10 days of custodial interrogation in the case. The detailed order of the proceeds is awaited.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vijayshree Rathore, meanwhile, allowed the police to conduct Poonawala's narco analysis test to unravel the case.

Police had moved an application seeking the narco test on November 12.

The court passed the order after noting that the accused had given his consent for the test, his advocate Abinash Kumar said.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled Shraddha Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight.

Police said the couple used to have frequent arguments over financial issues and it is suspected that there was also a fight between them that resulted in Poonawala killing 27-year-old Walkar on the evening of May 18.

Later, the Saket Bar Association (SBA) and Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) condemned the protest allegedly organised by lawyers.

While SBA distanced itself from the protest, BCD said the law should take its course.