Aaftab Poonawala Unwell, Won't Take Polygraph Test Today: Sources

The polygraph test of Aaftab Poonawala will not be conducted today as he is unwell and it could affect the results of the test, Delhi Police sources have said. The polygraph test is likely to be done on him tomorrow, they said.

The forensics team has said a polygraph test can't be done if the subject is not entirely fit.

Aaftab Poonawalla is accused of killing his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar in their rented flat in Delhi and cutting up her body.

He is also scheduled to face a narco analysis test tomorrow. It is not known whether the narco test would be pushed to another day after the rescheduled polygraph test.

A senior official at Rohini's Forensic Science Laboratory said investigators told them that Aaftab Poonawala is down with fever and cold and so he could not be brought for the polygraph test. The test will continue only after he gets well, the official added, according to news agency PTI.

A polygraph test measures stress, which produces common physiological responses, such as an increased heart rate and sweating, to determine whether a person could be lying.

A narco test involves giving a drug that puts the person into various stages of anaesthesia, making the subject becomes less inhibited and more likely to give information, which would not be revealed in a conscious state.

Statements made during narco analysis test, however, are not admissible in court, except under certain circumstances when the court thinks the facts and nature of the case allow it.

The couple, who met on the dating app Bumble and got into a relationship around 2019, apparently did not break up, even though a letter to the police written by Shraddha Walkar in 2020 said he had been assaulting and "blackmailing" her "for six months" with threats of murder. Both call centre employees, they had moved to Delhi from Maharashtra in May this year.