A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order on framing charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala who is accused of strangling his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into pieces.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Manisha Khurana Kakkar is likely to pass the order on on April 29.
Also on Saturday, Walkar’s father filed an application in the court urging that her remains be handed over for last rites as required by tradition and culture.
The Delhi Police informed ASJ Kakkar that a reply will be filed on April 29.
Meanwhile, the arguments on the framing of charges were completed by Poonawala’s advocate on Saturday.
During the proceedings, the counsel for Poonawala said that the place, time and manner of the offence should be specified according to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Poonawala has been booked for the offences under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, Poonawala’s advocate argued that the accused cannot be convicted for both offences and that both “alternate charges” cannot be clubbed together.
Rebutting the arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad said presently the case was at the stage of framing charges and there was no bar on framing charges for both offences.
There are “incriminating circumstances revealed through reliable and clinching evidence which form a chain of events”, the Delhi Police told the court earlier on March 20 as it completed its arguments on charges.
Earlier on February 21, a magisterial court after taking cognisance of the charge sheet had committed the case to the sessions court.
The Delhi Police had filed the 6,629-page charge sheet on January 24.
Walkar was allegedly strangled by her live-in partner Poonawala on May 18 last year, following which he sawed her body into pieces and kept them in a fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli. He scattered them at different places in the national capital to avoid being caught.
