Mehrauli murder: Delhi court extends Poonawala's judicial custody for another two weeks

A court here on Tuesday extended for 14 days the judicial custody of Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and dismembering her body.

Poonawala was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla in the court lockup. The judge extended his judicial custody for 14 days. Meanwhile, police informed the court that Poonawala’s debit and credit cards were seized as part of the ongoing investigation and would be released after filing the charge sheet, Poonawala’s counsel M S Khan said.

Earlier on January 6, Khan had moved an application for releasing the debit and credit cards of the accused and said Poonawala was facing harsh winter inside the prison without adequate warm clothes.

On Tuesday, the judge directed the prison authorities concerned to provide Poonawala with warm clothes, Khan said.

Poonawala informed the court that he had given a written application to prison authorities to provide him with books on the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), but despite the request being approved, the books were not made available, Khan said.

The judge said that if the books were not provided, his counsel could move an application for the same, Khan said.

“The judge asked Poonawala whether he wanted to fight his case, to which he said lawyers will defend me but I will assist my lawyer after reading these books,” Khan said.

Last Friday, the court extended Poonawala's judicial custody by four days and sought his physical production.

Poonawala, 28, allegedly sawed Walkar’s body into 35 pieces and kept them 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.

In November, a police van carrying Poonawala was attacked by some weapon-wielding people outside the Forensic Science Laboratory in Rohini where he was taken for a polygraph test.

He was arrested on November 12.