Shraddha murder case: Accused says bail plea moved by mistake

Aaftab Amin Poonawala, the accused in the Shraddha Walkar murder case, told the Saket court on Saturday that he had signed the 'vakalatnama' but did not know about filing a bail application. He was produced before the court via video conferencing. Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari said that the court received intimation from Aaftab through email that the bail application was moved by mistake.

However, when the court asked him whether the bail plea should be pending, Aaftab said: "I would like that the counsel talks to me and then withdraw the bail plea." The matter is listed for December 22. He had moved an application to the court seeking bail on Friday.

On December 9, the court had extended Aaftab’s judicial custody for 14 days. He was arrested on November 12 and is currently lodged in the Tihar Jail. The brutality of the murder was officially confirmed after the DNA extracted from bone pieces recovered in the Mehrauli forest matched with the victim’s father's samples, sources said on Thursday.

The Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Sagar Preet Hooda, had said that police have received the DNA test report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) and the polygraph test from the FSL, Rohini. However, he refrained from officially announcing the death of Shraddha as the third, narco-test report is still awaited.

The post-narco test of Aaftab was also concluded on December 2. His test was conducted inside the Tihar Jail by the FSL officials. Aaftab's polygraph test report was submitted to the police by the Forensic Sciences Lab (FSL) on Wednesday.

The Delhi Police teams investigating the case had recovered 13 bone pieces after the accused told the investigators that he chopped her body into 35 pieces and dumped them into the forest area.

Blood samples were also recovered from the bathroom and kitchen in the Chattarpur house, where both Aaftab and Shraddha had shifted on May 15, three days before her murder. The bone samples were sent for DNA analysis to the CFSL.

Shraddha and Aaftab had met through the dating app 'Bumble' in 2018. They had come to Delhi on May 8.

On May 18, Aaftab killed Shraddha, chopped her body into 35 pieces, and dumped them across various places over a period of 18 days.

Read: Shraddha Walkar murder: Unsettling details emerge on how Aaftab committed the crime