Aaftab Poonawala Kept In Tihar Jail Number 4, Under 24-Hour CCTV Coverage

Aaftab Poonawala, sent to judicial custody in the murder of girlfriend Shraddha Walkar, will be kept under round-the-clock camera surveillance in his prison cell, sources at Tihar Jail said.

He is being kept in Tihar Jail Number 4, which is for first-time offenders, and the minutest of his activities are being observed, it is learnt.

A Delhi court today sent him to judicial custody while the police, to find more clues, grilled a woman who had visited his residence after the murder. 

Shocking details continue to emerge in the case in which Aaftab Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and sawed her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge at his Mehrauli residence and dumped in batches over 18 days. The live-in couple from Maharashtra had recently moved to the rented flat in Delhi, where they had a fight over expenses that escalated. They had a toxic relationship for at least two years, the police probe has revealed.   

After the custody order today, Aaftab Poonawala was medically examined following due procedure. He is not alone in the cell but all precautions regarding his safety and security are being taken, new agency PTI quoted an official saying.

He was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody which was extended for another five days on November 17. On Tuesday, he was sent to four more days of police custody.

Police, meanwhile, also questioned a woman who had visited his flat residence some days after the murder.

He came in contact with the woman, a psychologist, through a dating app — the same one through which he had met Shraddha Walkar over three years ago — and called her to his residence, police said.

Sources in the probe team said the pieces of Shraddha Walkar's body still inside the refrigerator when he called the psychologist at his place.

On Friday, his polygraph test — one of two main tests as part of a lie-detection process — went on for nearly three hours. His narco-analysis test will be held over the next few days. 

Police had seized five knives from his flat and sent them to the forensic lab to ascertain if they were used in the crime. Police had earlier said a saw allegedly used to chop up Shraddha Walkar's body is yet to be recovered.

Also, police said it is yet to receive a DNA test report to confirm if body parts found in the jungle are indeed Shraddha Walkar's.