Shraddha Walker murder case: Aftab Poonawala's voice sample to be taken; judicial custody extended by 14 days

A Delhi court on Friday accepted the police’s application for conducting the voice sampling of Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused for brutally murdering his live-in partner Shraddha Walker earlier this year.

On December 22, the Delhi Police filed a request at the court seeking permission to record the accused.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vijayshree Rathore directed that voice sampling would be conducted on Monday at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in the city while agreeing with the prosecution’s submission that the accused has no right to oppose the application for voice sampling.

Meanwhile, the court extended Poonawala's judicial custody by another 14 days on Friday. His judicial custody was earlier extended also for 14 days on December 9.

Poonawala also withdrew his bail plea that was applied "erroneously" on Thursday. The court dismissed the bail plea as withdrawn as Poonawala claimed that he had no knowledge of his lawyer filing for a bail plea.

Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari had said the court received an intimation from Poonawala through e-mail that the bail application was moved by mistake.

However, when the court asked him whether the bail plea should be pending, Poonawala had said: "I would like that the counsel talks to me and then withdraws the bail plea."

On May 18 this year, Poonawala (28) chopped up Walker’s body into 35 pieces and stored them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area, later he disposed the parts across the city over a period of 18 days.