New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) There are “incriminating circumstances revealed through reliable and clinching evidence which form a chain of events”, the Delhi Police told a court here on Monday as it completed its arguments in the Shraddha Walkar murder case.
Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar was hearing the arguments on charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner Walkar and chopping her body into several pieces, and noted the completion of the arguments by Special Public Prosecutors (SPP) Amit Prasad and Madhukar Pandey, who appeared for the Delhi Police.
“There clearly are incriminating circumstances revealed through reliable and clinching evidence and these circumstances form a chain of events,” SPP Prasad said adding the chain of events “leads to the irresistible conclusion about the guilt of the accused for the offences…” Poonawala has been booked for the offences under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
Referring to two Supreme Court judgments of 2011 and 2004, the SPP argued “it is immaterial whether the case is based on direct or circumstantial evidence” and that “the charges can be framed if there are materials showing possibility about the commission of the crime as against certainty”.
The SPP underlined several relevant circumstances that connected Poonawala to the offences, including the live-in relationship of Poonawala and Walkar, which had a “violent past”, the couple’s continuous living together and last seen together, and Walkar’s complete disappearance, following which only traces of digital visibility was created, and the pattern of purchase of Poonawala after May 18.
According to the chargesheet, Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Walkar on May 18 last year and sawed her body into several pieces which he kept in a fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli locality.
The SPP further said that “credible recoveries” of the deceased’s bones, jaw, hair and blood were made. While the blood was matched using DNA profiling, the jaw was identified by a dentist and the use of a saw on the bones was confirmed by a medical opinion from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The ring worn by Walkar and as seen in the Practo App was given to another woman, who had produced it before the investigating agency, he said.
Noting that Poonawala’s previous advocate had handed over the digital copy of the chargesheet to the accused’s present Legal Aid Counsel (LAC) Advocate Javed Hussain on Tuesday and that Hussain sought time to go through the content, ASJ Kakkar posted the matter for the LAC’s response on March 25.
Earlier on February 21, a magisterial court committed the case to the sessions court after taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the police.
The Delhi Police had filed a 6,629-page chargesheet on January 24. PTI MNR MNR KVK KVK
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