New Delhi: A court here on Friday extended the judicial custody of Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner and dismembering her body, by four days. Poonawala was produced before the court through video conference. "I am giving four days judicial custody. Accused will be produced before me physically on January 10," Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla said. Earlier on December 23, a court had remanded Poonawala in judicial custody for 14 days.
Meanwhile, Aaftab Amin Poonawala's advocate on Friday moved an application for the release of his debit and credit card. The application said that Poonawala was suffering from harsh winter inside prison and he did not have adequate garments.
So, there is an urgent need for funds to purchase the day-to-day items, as well as warm clothes, the application said. "That the accused had some funds in his bank accounts and the debit card/credit cards of the accused is lying with the police officials," said the application seeking release of the cards to his advocate.
Poonawala, 28, is likely to be produced in court via video conferencing soon after his judicial custody ends. Poonawala allegedly sawed the body of his live-in partner, Shraddha Walkar, into 35 pieces and kept them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his house in south Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days.
Earlier, the Delhi Police said that samples of hair and bones recovered by them matched that of Shraddha. A mitochondrial DNA report of the samples found in the forest area of Mehrauli and sent for testing at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting Diagnostic (CDFD) in Hyderabad has matched with that of the victim's father and brother, the Delhi Police said.
