Shraddha case: Hearing on murder charges against Aaftab on March 7  

CHENNAI:  In yet another development in the Shraddha Walkar murder case, a Delhi Court on Friday said it will hear on Mach 7 the arguments on charges against the accused and her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala.

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. The next hearing was fixed by the court after the accused was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar at Saket court in the city.

Earlier, Principal District and Sessions Judge Narottam Kaushal was transferring the case to the court of ASJ Kakkar.  On February 21, a magisterial court passed the sensational case to a sessions court where cases of heinous offences like murder are tried after the completion of documents’ scrutiny.  

The Poonawala (28) 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. On February 7, the court had taken cognisance of the 6,629-page voluminous charge sheet filed by the police on January 24.

The chargesheet was filed 73 days after Aaftab was arrested on November 12, 2022, six months after he had allegedly committed the heinous crime. His arrest was followed by Shraddha’s father’s complaint about her missing after learning from her friends that they were unable to contact her for over two-and-a-half months.

Poonawala was arrested by the Delhi Police on November 12. The charge sheet, accessed by TNIE, revealed the extent of the barbarity of the crime. “To get rid of Shraddha, once in all, I sat on her chest and choked her till the time she was dead...,” the confession of accused Aaftab in the chargesheet read.