Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: 21 November 2022 at 21:07 IST
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been requested to take over the investigation of Aftab Ameen Poonawala, who is accused of killing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed before the Delhi High Court.
Joshini Tuli, a practising advocate, filed a PIL in which she alleges that the Delhi Police exposed delicate and minute aspects of the inquiry to the public through the media.
The motion claims that the Delhi Police and P.S. Mehrauli have so far made every information of their inquiry public and available to the media, which is against the law.
The presence of the media and other members of the public at the locations of recoveries, during court proceedings, and so forth is further claimed to constitute interference with the evidence and witnesses in the current case.
The petitioner also makes it clear that no other people, entities, or organisations will likely be harmed by the requested relief; rather, it will only likely affect the accused, complainant, and the general Delhi population.
The argument emphasises that the victim’s body parts were disposed of at several locations following the murder, which is said to have occurred in Delhi. Due to a staffing shortage and a lack of technical tools, the Mehrauli Police Station was not able to conduct the investigation.
Due to a lack of administrative and staff resources as well as adequate technical and scientific tools, P.S. Mehrauli cannot be carried out effectively. This is because the incident occurred in May 2022, some six months prior.
Further information was provided, stating that the accused would be transported to five other states in order to forward the inquiry in accordance with comments made by the Delhi Police to the media. The lawyer argued that because of this, the matter was “inter-state” and beyond of Delhi Police’s purview.
The grisly murder case centres on a couple who allegedly met on the dating app Bumble and then began living together. Before moving to Delhi at the start of this year, they were initially based out of Mumbai.
Police claim that on May 18 of this year, following a fight between the pair at a rental apartment in Mehrauli, the accused strangled the victim, cut her body into 35 pieces, put them in a refrigerator, and then dumped the pieces throughout the city over the course of the following 18 days.