Shraddha Walkar case: Murder trial against Aaftab set to begin on Feb 24

Aaftab allegedly killed Walkar on May 18 last year. He sawed her body into several pieces and kept it at his residence for almost three weeks before disposing of them in various locations.

Aaftab Poonawala, accused of killing his partner Shraddha Walkar, being brought to his residence at Chhatarpur as part of the ongoing investigation. (File Photo |PTI)

NEW DELHI: After the completion of documents’ scrutiny in the Shraddha Walkar murder case by a magistrate, the formal trial against the accused and her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala will begin before a principal sessions judge on Friday.

Poonawala was accused of killing Walkar on May 18 last year. He then chopped her body into several pieces and kept it in a fridge for almost three weeks at his South Delhi residence before disposing of them in various locations in the city, as per the cops.

Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla said the murder charge against Aaftab is exclusively triable by a sessions court and sent the case to the principal district and sessions judge at Saket court in the city.  “Scrutiny of documents is complete. Section 302 of the IPC is exclusively triable by a sessions court. Accordingly, the accused be produced before the principal district and sessions judge on February 24 at 2 pm,” the judge said, adding that the case is now committed to the sessions court.

Poonawala was charged with various sections including 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender) and  365 (kidnapping) under IPC. The court also asked the accused to file a fresh application on his plea for carrying religious books to the court. He also had requested the court to allow him to carry a book of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), a notebook and a pen during the proceedings so that he could make notes and assist his lawyer. 

His counsel Adv M S Khan told the court that two applications were already filed including one for the accused’s educational certificates and stationery items such as a notepad and pencil and the other for a proper soft copy of the charge sheet.

The lawyer also said the footage related to the case provided to him in the pen drive was not in a sequence. “The footage where Shraddha Walkar is talking on the Practo App is in small parts of 10-12 seconds duration each. They are not in a series or sequence,” he said.

To this, the investigating officer (IO) said the soft copy of the chargesheet provided to Khan was divided into various folders and also included various footage such as those from the Practo App, crime scene photographs and pictures of the recoveries made during the investigation. He said that everything pertaining to the investigation was already provided to Khan in the same manner as received by the police.

Khan agreed that the pen drive provided to him consisted of two parts -- the chargesheet and the FIR folders. “Whatever is available, we will provide. The idea is to provide the chargesheet to the accused,” the magistrate said. He also asked Khan to “coordinate” with Poonawala.