Delhi Police is likely to seek an extension of the custody Aaftab Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, which ends on Tuesday as key evidence including the murder weapon are yet to be found. Even as searches continued in several parts of Delhi for the fourth day on Monday, authorities abandoned efforts to drain a pond where some of her body parts were suspected to be dumped.
Investigators recovered a human jaw during searches for the body parts of 27-year-old Shraddha, who was killed and dismembered by Aaftab in May, and approached a dentist here in a bid to ascertain whether it is of the murder victim.
Meanwhile, the police approached a court for conducting a polygraph test on Aaftab. A narco test could not be conducted on Poonawala on Monday, an official of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) said, adding that a polygraph test has to be done before the narco test.
The court had on Thursday directed the city police to complete the narco analysis test within five days while making it clear that it cannot use any third-degree measure on him.
The Delhi police on Monday moved an application in court for conducting the polygraph test on Poonawala. PTI quoted sources saying that the accused has consented to the polygraph test too.
Punit Puri, an assistant director at the FSL, said the polygraphic test will be conducted if consent is received. "It will be followed by medical tests and after these, the narco will be performed." "Within 10 days, narco will be done," he added.
A polygraph test is a non-invasive technique in which no medicine is used. In this test, the subject is attached to a machine and questions are asked to him/her about the matter related to any case or incident. The variation in the graph when the subject answer the questions are mapped to draw a conclusion.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), polygraph tests measure a person's "heart rate/blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductivity." The purpose of the test is usually to prove whether or not a person committed a crime.
Legal Aid defence counsel Abinash Kumar, who is representing Poonawala, said that he will oppose extension of police custody by more than two days.
Asked if he has been able to speak to Poonawala or his family members, he said that only the investigating officer has been able to get in touch with Poonawala's family including his father, maternal uncle and a cousin.
After a Delhi Police team on Sunday recorded the statement of an employee of a packaging company in Maharashtra's Palghar district, it came to light that Poonawala had shifted belongings in 37 packages from his flat at White Hills Society in Evershine City of Vasai to his residence in Delhi's Chhatarpur area in June, an official said.
Poonawala had told Delhi Police that before moving to the national capital, he and Walkar fought about who would pay for shifting the items from their house, according to police sources.
A police official said they will find out whose account was used to pay Rs 20,000 for the transportation of furniture and other household items in June through the Goodluck Packers and Movers company.
An estate agent in Mumbai claimed that Amin Poonawala, father of the accused, did not share much information about him while taking a flat on rent in a building in Mira Road area last month.
Meanwhile, a purported bill from an electronics shop was doing rounds on social media. The bill was for a refrigerator priced at Rs 25,299. It was issued in the name of one Aaftab, while the mobile number mentioned in the bill was of Walkar.
Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar, 27, on May 18 and sawed her body into nearly three dozen pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight.
(With PTI inputs)
