The Delhi police has moved a lower court seeking permission to conduct a polygraph test on Aaftab Ameen Poonawala, the accused in the Shraddha Walker murder case.
Police had earlier said Aaftab, who confessed to killing his live-in partner and chopping her body into 35 pieces, was giving misleading answers to questions. Metropolitan magistrate Aviral Shukla of Saket Court referred the matter to Magistrate Vijayshree Rathore, who earlier granted permission for a narco analysis test on Aaftab. The court is likely to hear the plea on Tuesday.
According to sources, Aaftab is to be produced before the court after the expiry of his five-day police custody.
Delhi police had earlier submitted in court that Aaftab was giving wrong information and misleading the investigation. The plea for polygraph test is the second scientific examination that Delhi police sought to conduct on Aaftab.
On Thursday, the court ordered Rohini Forensic Science Laboratory to conduct a narco test on Aaftab within five days.
However, the court directed the investigating officer in the case not to use third-degree on the accused as it extended its custody by a further five days. Metropolitan magistrate Vijayshree Rathore had allowed the application seeking permission for a narco analysis test on Aaftab.
The court had allowed the plea after take note of the accused’s consent through Legal Aid Counsel Harshit Sagar. The accused was connected to the court proceedings through video conferencing.
“The FSL, Rohini is directed to allow the IO to conduct a Narco Analysis Test of the accused within five days from today,” the court had said on Thursday.
During the proceedings, the accused was explained the meaning of the narco analysis test and its consequences. He was further informed that since he was not physically produced before the court and his consent for the test was being sought through video conferencing, his consent would be recorded through the legal-aid counsel appointed on his behalf, Harshit Sagar, on 14 November.
Meanwhile, a plea has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking a transfer of investigation in the Shraddha murder case from Delhi Police to the CBI.
The plea, which has been moved by a practising lawyer of Delhi, stated that investigation by Delhi Police, in this case, cannot be efficiently carried out due to administrative/staff paucity as well as lack of sufficient technical and scientific equipment to find out the evidence and the witness as the incident had taken place about six months back.
It further stated that the minute and sensitive details of the investigation by the Delhi Police have been revealed to the public through the media. The presence of media and other public persons at the place of recoveries, court hearings etc. of any accused amounts to their interference with the evidence and witnesses in the present case.
