Mehrauli horror: Police move court for obtaining Poonawala’s voice sample

PTI, Dec 22, 2022, 8:17 PM IST

The Delhi Police moved a city court on Thursday seeking permission for obtaining the voice sample of Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of strangling his live-in partner and dismembering her body.

The court, meanwhile, dismissed Poonawala’s bail plea as withdrawn and not pressed, days after he claimed he had no inkling of his lawyer moving a bail application.

The city police’s application is likely to be heard on Friday, a source in the court said.

Poonawala’s 14-day judicial custody also expires on Friday and he is likely to be produced before court through video conference.

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 Bail petition dismissed as withdrawn and not pressed,” Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari said.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 authorised 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 on 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.

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.