A Delhi court has sent the Mehrauli murder case, in which Aaftab Poonawala is accused of killing his live-in partner, to a sessions court for initiation of trial proceedings. Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla noted that the chargesheet was filed under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender). “Scrutiny of documents is complete. Section 302 of the IPC is exclusively triable by a sessions court. Accordingly, the accused be produced before the principal district and sessions judge on February 24 at 2 pm," the court said. "The case is now committed to the sessions court," he added. Earlier in the day, the accused was produced in Metropolitan Magistrate Shukla's court and he requested he be allowed to carry a book of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), a notebook and a pen during the proceedings so that he could make notes and assist his advocate. He also requested the court to grant permission to carry a religious book to the court. The magistrate directed the accused to file an application for this before the sessions court concerned. Advocate M S Khan, who is representing the accused, informed the court that two applications were already filed in this court, one for the accused's educational certificates and stationery items such as notepad and pencil, and the other for a proper" soft copy of the chargesheet. Khan also said the footage related to the case provided to him in the pendrive were not in sequence. "The footage where Shraddha Walkar is talking on the Practo App is in small parts of 10-12 seconds each. They are not in a series or sequence," he said. Police stated that the soft copy of the chargesheet provided to Khan was divided into various folders and also included various footage such as those from the Practo App, crime scene photographs and pictures of the recoveries made during the investigation. The agency said that everything pertaining to the investigation was already provided to Khan in the same manner as received by the police.
