Aaftab Poonawala has never confessed in court of law he killed Shraddha Walkar, says his lawyer

PTI

New Delhi, November 22

Aaftab Amin Poonawala has not yet confessed to killing his live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar in the court of law, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

"I spoke to Poonawala for five-seven minutes today. When I spoke to him in the morning, he appeared relaxed and was very confident. He did not show any signs of aggressiveness," said Defence Counsel Abinash Kumar, who is representing Poonawala.

The lawyer said when he asked Poonawala if he is able to follow the legal proceedings in the case and if he was satisfied with the defence, he replied in the affirmative. "He has never confessed in the court of law that he killed Walkar," Kumar told PTI.

This contrasts police's assertion that Poonawala has confessed to killing Walker and dumping her body parts at different locations across Delhi.

Kumar said Poonawala's family is scared to come out and they are waiting for the matter to subside a bit.

"They are scared after what has happened and wish to stay out of media glare for now. Even I have not been able to meet them yet. I am also planning to file a plea in the court to get in touch with Poonawala's family," he added.

On Tuesday, a Delhi Court granted the Delhi Police four more days of custody of Poonawala. The five-day custody granted earlier ended on Tuesday.

Poonawala is accused of killing his live-in partner and cut her body into 35 pieces before disposing it of.

The court here on Tuesday extended his police custody.

The court noted that in the application seeking the extension of Poonawala's police remand, the investigating officer said some more body parts of the deceased including her jaws were recovered from a jungle on November 20.

The IO also requested for the extension of his police custody on the ground that more body parts or bones and weapons can be recovered on the basis of the disclosures made by the accused, the court said.

It is further submitted that a rough site plan has been found at the house of the accused which may assist in the search and custodial interrogation, the court said, adding the accused will also be required to connect the chain of events in the crime.

Separately, another court of Vijayshree Rathore allowed the police application for conducting a polygraph test on Poonawala.