Aaftab Poonawala is accused of killing his 27-year-old live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar (PTI/File)
Delhi News Highlights: The Delhi Police on Friday said that Aaftab Poonawala, who is accused of murdering his 27-year-old live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar, has tried to mislead the interrogators by claiming that she “had severed her relationship with him and had left their live-in rented accommodation”. In a status note, the police said, “Each uttering of the accused is being assessed upon the crucible of admissible evidentiary value. Multiple teams are camping outstation to recreate the lives of accused and (the victim) together; similarly, multiple teams are carrying out search operations to recover the missing skeletal parts. Several inter-disciplinary teams are working round the clock for documenting, finding discrepancies and further refining the versions and the motives being put forth by the accused.”
The Delhi Police have formed multiple teams to visit Gurgaon, Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in connection with the investigation into Shraddha Walkar’s murder. Officers said the teams will look for evidence that they haven’t been able to recover from Delhi, and will also question Walkar’s friends. Aaftab, meanwhile, will undergo a narco-analysis test in the next two-three days as a Delhi court has granted permission for the same.
The body of an unidentified young woman was found in a suitcase on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura, personnel from the area’s Raya police station said, adding that she appears to be in her 20s. The body was found wrapped in plastic, inside a large red-coloured suitcase, and had blood on the face and head. In the evening, the area’s circle officer, Mahavan Alok Singh, said: “In the morning we received information about the suitcase, in which the body of a young woman was found. Efforts are on to identify her. It seems that she was murdered somewhere and her body was left here. There is a suspected gunshot wound near her shoulder; we will find out through a post-mortem whether it is indeed a gunshot.”
Aaftab Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar met on a dating app in 2019. According to friends, they had a toxic, abusive relationship.
The Delhi High Court Friday said it shall first hear the pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Agnipath recruitment scheme as a whole and, thereafter, hear the pleas concerning the recruitment process for armed forces under certain previous advertisements. A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Centre to segregate the matters.
There are a total of 24 matters listed before the HC and the bench asked the ASG to prepare a chart on the same for the convenience of the court. Read more
The Delhi Police on Friday said that Aaftab Poonawala, who is accused of murdering his 27-year-old live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar, has tried to mislead the interrogators by claiming that she “had severed her relationship with him and had left their live-in rented accommodation”.
In a status note, the police said, “Each uttering of the accused is being assessed upon the crucible of admissible evidentiary value. Multiple teams are camping outstation to recreate the lives of accused and (the victim) together; similarly, multiple teams are carrying out search operations to recover the missing skeletal parts. Several inter-disciplinary teams are working round the clock for documenting, finding discrepancies and further refining the versions and the motives being put forth by the accused.”
The Delhi Police have formed multiple teams to visit Gurgaon, Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in connection with the investigation into 27-year-old Shraddha Walkar’s murder, allegedly by her 28-year-old live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala. Officers said the teams will look for evidence that they haven’t been able to recover from Delhi, and will also question Walkar’s friends.
Aaftab, meanwhile, will undergo a narco-analysis test in the next two-three days as a Delhi court has granted permission for the same. His phone and other gadgets will be sent for forensic examination along with the suspected body pieces, mostly in the form of bones, that have been recovered from Delhi’s Mehrauli forest.
The Delhi L-G’s decision to seal his office Friday drew a sharp reaction from Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah.
“The action taken by Delhi’s LG to seal my office at DDC and stop me from discharging my duties is without jurisdiction, completely illegal and unconstitutional. The LG has said I cannot act as a spokesperson for AAP while being Vice Chairperson of DDC. I have one question for the LG – Sambit Patra is a National Spokesperson of BJP while also holding the office of Chairman of ITDC. If my office is being sealed, then why not his? How can two laws operate in the same country – one for AAP and one for BJP?” he said in a statement. Read more
The Saket court Friday ordered Rohini Forensic Science Lab to conduct a narco test of Aftab Poonawala, who is accused of murdering his live-in-partner Shraddha Walkar, within 5 days.
The Delhi Police arrested a driver working with the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday in connection with an alleged espionage case. Sources said he was honey-trapped and had passed on confidential information to a person in Pakistan. The arrested person is being questioned.
The driver was arrested after security agencies alerted the police that he was allegedly passing on information to someone in the neighbouring country. Read more
The Delhi Police on Friday arrested a driver working with the Ministry of External Affairs in connection with an espionage case. Police sources said that the driver was honey-trapped and had allegedly passed on confidential information to the other accused involved in the case. The arrest took place after security agencies alerted the police that the driver was passing on the information to someone in Pakistan. He is currently being questioned.
A woman's body was found stuffed inside a suitcase on Friday near the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura. The woman has not been identified yet and is suspected to be aged between 21 to 22, the Raya police station confirmed. The police said that cause of death will be revealed post the post-morterm report is prepared.
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In a plea moved by Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita seeking video calling facility for inmates in Tihar jail whose families are abroad, the jail authorities informed the Delhi High Court on Friday that the same is not provided due to “security reasons”.
A single judge bench of Justice Yashwant Varma was hearing a plea by Narwal and Kalita, who were granted bail along with Asif Iqbal Tanha on June 15, 2021, after their arrest in the North East Delhi riots conspiracy case under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Read more
In a plea moved against a builder for defraud, the Delhi High Court recently observed that it is an “unfortunate trend that builders resort to dilatory tactics to defraud homebuyers”. A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad in its November 1 judgment observed that dilatory tactics also include “defrauding homebuyers by selling units to multiple individuals, delaying the execution of projects, and executing projects without requisite sanctions”.
The HC observed that while most builders undergo insolvency, the greatest loss is incurred by homebuyers who are not only forced to embroil themselves in litigation but also divested of their hard-earned savings. Read more
The Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Haryana, Wednesday announced that empanelled architects shall be the competent authority for issuing occupancy certificates under the self-certification policy for residential houses within the licensed plotted colonies in the state.
In an order to the senior town planners and district town planners in Haryana, the Director General, Town, and Country Planning, said that the decision was made “to streamline and expedite the process of grant of occupation certificates (OCs) of residential houses within the licensed plotted colonies in the state.”
The directorate outlined the standard procedure and guidelines to be implemented. Read more.
The Delhi High Court recently upheld a trial court’s conviction order of life term awarded to a man in the kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old boy in 2007.
A division bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal was hearing an appeal filed by the accused challenging a 2019 order of a trial court convicting him for offences under section 302 (murder), section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and section 364A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code.
The trial court had further sentenced the accused to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh. The boy’s father had lodged a police complaint in October 2007 claiming that his son was kidnapped. The kidnapper had demanded Rs 1.5 crore as ransom, but later finalised it at Rs 33 lakh. Read more.
The Delhi Police on Friday sent a team to Gurgaon to conduct searches for the murder weapon and phone of the deceased in connection the Shraddha Walkar murder case. Police said the accused, Aaftab Poonawaala, might have discarded Walkar’s phone in Gurgaon where he worked at a call centre.
Delhi saw a colder morning Friday with the minimum temperature settling at 9.6 degrees Celsius in the early hours, three degrees below normal for this time of the year.
This is the lowest minimum temperature so far this month, having dropped from 11.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday. Over the next six days, the minimum temperature is likely to range from 9 to 11 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast. Thursday was also cooler during the day with the maximum temperature settling at around 25.4 degrees Celsius, two degrees below the normal for this time of the year.
The maximum temperature is likely to remain at around 26 or 27 degrees Celsius over the next six days, the forecast indicates. Read more.
Delhi government think tank DDCD's vice-chairman Jasmine Shah has been restricted from discharging his duties and his office sealed while the facilities enjoyed by him have been withdrawn following an order by the LG, officials said Friday.
They said the process is on to withdraw his official vehicle and staff provided by the government. The action came after BJP MP Parvesh Verma complained that Shah was "working as a spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party" even as he held the post of vice-chairman of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD).
The Planning Department of the Delhi government on Thursday issued an order, saying the lieutenant governor has ordered Shah to be restricted from functioning as vice-chairman of DDCD and from enjoying any privileges and facilities associated with it. (PTI)
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, BJP National President J P Nadda, MPs and movie stars Hema Malini and Ravi Kishan will be the BJP’s star campaigners in the upcoming municipal corporation polls on December 4. The party announced a list of 40-star campaigners on Thursday. All seven Delhi MPs are also part of the list, as is Delhi BJP unit president Adesh Gupta.
The MCD campaign in the city is expected to be high decibel, with the AAP hoping to win its first corporation election in the city, and the BJP fighting 15 years’ worth of anti-incumbency. Read more
Traffic movement in Gurgaon will remain affected Friday with Ahirs planning to hold a protest near the Kherki Daula toll plaza to press for their demand for a separate regiment for the community in the Army.
The traffic police requested commuters to follow alternative routes to avoid traffic congestion. Commuters coming from Jaipur towards Delhi may take the diversion from Pachgaon Chowk and follow the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway for Delhi and other areas, their advisory stated. Read more
Union Minister Kaushal Kishore on Thursday said live-in relationships are "giving rise to crime" and suggested that educated girls should not get into such relationships, remark that comes against the backdrop of the gruesome Mehrauli killing, prompting Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi to demand his resignation.
Chaturvedi urged Prime minister Narendra Modi to sack the minister from the Union cabinet immediately for his "blame-the-women" remark which she described as "heartless and cruel". Kishore, while referring to the Shradha Walkar murder case, said educated girls are responsible for leaving parents for live-in relationships that lead to crime, and suggested that they should instead go for court marriage. (PTI)
Four startups led by the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have received a grant of Rs 50 lakh each under the Endowment Nurture Fund of the institution. According to director Rangan Bannerjee, IIT Delhi has started the Endowment Nurture Fund in 2019 and has raised around Rs 169 crore. It aims to use the fund to offer graduating students the opportunity to get seed money for their proposed ventures.
The four startups are ‘Circle’, a financial wellness product for organisations to provide daily salary and low-cost retirement to their employees; ‘Bag-it’, an on-demand platform for wholesalers that digitizes the jewellery supply chain for the benefit of retailers; ‘I-Stem’, which provides digital content accessibility solutions; and ‘Onpery’, which aims to make green menstruation adaptable and accessible to the masses. Read more
Delhi recorded a minimum temperature 11.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday and the maximum settled at 27.5 degrees, a notch below the normal, the Met office said. The 24-hour average air quality index was in the poor category at 260, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'. (PTI)