A Delhi court has expressed its dissatisfaction with the slow progress in the Shraddha Walkar murder case, noting significant delays over the past three months. The court urged lawyers to expedite the proceedings after the summer vacation.
Vikas Walkar, the father of Shraddha Walkar whose brutal murder in 2022 had caused a nationwide sensation, died on Sunday at his residence in Vasai city of Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said.
Shraddha's father also demanded the case be fast-tracked and Poonawala hanged.
Poonawala, however, denied the charges and demanded a trial. The matter has been posted for further proceedings on June 1.
The Maharashtra Police said that based on a complaint by Shraddha Walkar in 2020, they had begun an investigation but the case was closed after she gave a written statement to withdraw the case.
Poonawala will now have to appear before a principal district and sessions judge at Saket in New Delhi on Friday.
A 56-year-old man was arrested after the chopped body parts of his live-in partner were recovered from a flat in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Thursday. A court has remanded the man, identified as Manoj Sane, in police custody till June 16, he said.
Some others, however, said that since Walkar had withdrawn her complaint later, the police cannot be blamed as they could not do much after that.
In a statement, police also said in view of the the "deceptive nature" of responses provided by the accused, an application for conducting his narco analysis test was made and it has been approved by the court.
The father also testified about Poonawala's statement that after strangulation of the victim, he bought a saw, chopped off her wrists and put those in a trash bag.
Poonam and Deepak kept the body parts of Anjan Das in a fridge and would dispose them of at different places in east Delhi.
Shubham Lonkar, the mastermind and wanted accused in Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique's murder had allegedly planned the murder of Aftab Poonawala, the accused arrested in the gruesome Shraddha Walker murder case, sources said.
The Delhi police has recovered the weapon allegedly used by Aaftab Amin Poonawala to cut the body of his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, sources said on Monday.
The Delhi police, which is probing the Shraddha Walkar murder case in which her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala allegedly strangulated her to death and chopped her body into 35 pieces, dumped it in the Chhatarpur area of the national capital, has taken DNA samples of Shraddha's father Vikas Walkar so that the dumped body parts and blood sample can be matched.
The victim's father, Vikas Madan Walkar, was being cross-examined as a prosecution witness by accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala's counsel before additional sessions judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar.
The bones and hair were recovered during searches from forest areas of Delhi NCR including Gurgaon and Mehrauli, the police said.
Aaftab Amin Poonawala used to beat Shraddha Walkar and then apologise, persuading her to forgive the assaults, her brother testified on Thursday in a Delhi court which commenced recording the testimonies of witnesses in the sensational murder trial.
The pieces of Walkar's body were kept inside the refrigerator when he called the psychologist at his place, according to police sources.
A close friend of Maharashtra resident Shraddha Walkar, who was killed allegedly by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala in Delhi, has said there could be a 'big conspiracy' behind her murder, while another friend claimed she had once called him saying Poonawala would kill her.
Poonawala appeared before the court through video-conferencing and said he wished to withdraw the bail application which was filed before the court on December 15.
The polygraph test ended on Tuesday after multiple sessions, the sources said.
Shraddha never told me about her anger issues: Father
'An inquiry should also be conducted against the police officials of Vasai and Nalasopara and Tulinj police (in Palghar district) for delayed the investigation on Shraddha's complaint'
The doctor who treated the Mumbai girl, Shraddha Walkar, for acute shoulder and back pain in the year 2020, on Friday said that the accused Aaftab Poonawala accompanied her when she was brought to hospital.
Poonawala's applications alleged that he was "falsely implicated" in the case and that the prosecution "intentionally" provided a digital copy of the chargesheet "which cannot be read".
Additional sessions judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar issued the directions to authorities while hearing arguments on the charges against Poonawala.
The police said that the charge sheet was filed on Tuesday under sections 302 and 201 of the IPC. Over 150 testimonies have been recorded, they said.
The police on Thursday claimed to have gathered some key evidence in the Mehrauli murder case, saying the DNA samples extracted from the bones recovered from a forest area and from the blood traces found at the house where Shraddha Walkar was murdered have matched with samples of her father.
A Delhi court on Friday fixed March 7 for hearing arguments on charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of strangling his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into multiple pieces.
Aaftab Amin Poonawala has not yet confessed to killing his live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar in the court of law, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
The Saket court on Tuesday extended the police custody of Aftab Poonawala to four more days after he was produced before the court via video conferencing in a special hearing.
In a new development in Shraddha Walkar murder case, Aaftab Amin Poonawala's most recent girlfriend was in shock after hearing about the horrific act by him and said that she had no clue that human body parts were kept inside Aaftab's Chhatarpur residence when she visited there twice after the murder.
The process of recording the statements was underway at the Vasai crime branch office, he said.
Aaftab Amin Poonawala will be taken to different locations in south Delhi on Saturday as the Delhi Police are trying to locate more body parts which he had allegedly disposed of after killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, officials said.
Call centre employee Shraddha Walkar had two years ago complained to the police in Maharashtra that her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala, who is accused of brutally murdering her, tried to kill her and she feared he would cut her into pieces and throw her away, an official said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
It was in November 2020 that Shraddha Walkar first confided about the physical assault from Aaftab Amin Poonawala, recalls a former colleague, adding that she was about to approach the police but stopped short of pressing charges after Aaftab's parents intervened.
As Poonawala's five-day police custody ends on Tuesday, the Delhi Police is running against time to get the test conducted.
Giving a chilling account of the gory crime, the police alleged that Poonawala's partner Walkar was "already living in constant fear of getting killed" even before the accused decided to get rid of her in a barbaric and brutal manner.
A social activist, with whom call centre employee Shraddha Walkar had participated in a Mumbai beach clean-up drive, has claimed the deceased suspected her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala of cheating on her and appeared quiet and aloof during the cleanliness campaigns.
The committee will hold regular meetings with district officials and collect information of registered and unregistered inter-faith and intercaste marriages; on such marriage that took place in places of worship and marriages took place after elopement.
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