Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 9: Aaftab Poonawala was charged with murder and disappearance of evidence on Tuesday by a court in Delhi. He had been accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into 35 pieces.
Poonawala was brought before the Saket court, where Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Manisha Khurana Kakkar issued the ruling.
The ASJ read the order to Poonawala, who was represented by his lawyer, during the hearing.
“On May 18, 2022, after 6:30 am, you committed the murder of Shraddha Walkar and the offence is punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” she said.
“Between May 18 and October 18, knowing that offence has been committed, you cut her body into pieces with an intention to disappear evidence, and disposed of her body in Chattarpur and in other places. You have, thereby, committed the offence of disappearance of evidence,” the court ruled.
When the judge questioned Poonawala about whether he would admit guilt to the accusations or not, his attorney responded, “We claim trial.”
On June 1, Shraddha Walkar’s murder trial is scheduled to start.
The Delhi Police submitted a 6,636-page chargesheet in January that includes a mixture of forensic and technological evidence as well as 100 witness statements.
Offences under IPC Sections 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence) and 302 (murder) have been filed against Poonawala.
Poonawala is accused of strangling Shraddha Walkar on May 18 of last year and sawing her body into multiple parts, which he then kept at his Mehrauli home in south Delhi for about three weeks in a refrigerator.
The remains were purportedly dispersed by him after that throughout Delhi; some have subsequently been found.
