Delhi murder: Court extends Aaftab Poonawala's custody, allows polygraph test

Delhi murder: Aaftab Poonawala is accused of murdering his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar.

As the probe intensifies in the murder of Shraddha Walkar, a Delhi court on Tuesday extended the custody of her live-in partner - Aaftab Poonawala - by four days. The court has also cleared the request by the Delhi Police to conduct a polygraph test. Aaftab Poonawala has been accused of killing Walkar in May; he then allegedly hacked her body into 35 pieces and then disposed off the pieces in a jungle in forest areas over a period of several months. He was arrested on November 12.

Aaftab Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar. (HT Photo)(HT_PRINT)

The accused was produced in a court in Delhi's Saket on Tuesday morning. According to Poonawala's lawyer, the police said that he has to be taken to search the pond in the Mehrauli forest and in Maidangarhi areas of the national capital. The police had started the process of draining a pond recently to find more evidence. The counsel also said that Poonawala has given a sketch of the pond where he had allegedly thrown the parts and that needs to be searched.

During the hearing, the lawyer said, Poonawala told the court that with Delhi being a new place for him, it was difficult for him to identify the places. He further said that he was "fully cooperating with the investigation agency" and "whatever has happened, it's in the heat of the moment and not deliberate".

On Monday, the Delhi Police - in its application for polygraph test - had alleged that Poonawala was "misleading the investigation agency" and hence the test was required to confirm whether the answers to the police's query are right or wrong, court sources told Hindustan Times. A polygraph test relies on various parameters such as tracking breathing rate, blood pressure, perspiration and heart rate.

He is also slated to undergo narco analysis, which is also known as truth serum, and involves intravenous administration of a drug (such as sodium pentothal, scopolamine and sodium amytal) that causes the person undergoing it to enter into various stages of anaesthesia.