Shraddha Walkar murder case: Aaftab Poonawala pleads not guilty as Delhi court frames murder charges
A Delhi Court on Tuesday framed murder and disappearance of evidence charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala, a south Delhi resident accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into pieces in May last year.
However, Poonawala, who was accompanied by his lawyer, denied all charges against him and demanded a trial, following which the court listed further proceedings in the case on June 1.
Pronouncing the order against Poonawala at a Saket court, Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar said the accused is charged with offences of murder and dissappearance of evidence under Indian Penal Code sections 302 and 201.
Reading out the order Justice Kakkar said: “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). 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.”
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On January 24, 6,629-page charge sheet was filed against Poonawala by the Delhi which detailed how the accused allegedly strangled his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar to death on May 18 last year and then sawed her body into 35 pieces which he then kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his south Delhi home in Mehrauli.
The 28-year-old Aaftab Amin Poonawala, then dumped the pieces of Walkar’s body in the woods near Chattarpur and other nearby places in a bid to destroy evidence. He was arrested in November last year and has been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence).
The Delhi Police has since managed to recover some of pieces of the victim’s body which after forensic testing have been confirmed as belonging to Walkar.
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