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“In Heat Of Moment”, Says Aaftab Poonawala In Court On Killing Girlfriend

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The Saket court today extended the police custody of Aaftab Poonawala to four more days after he was produced before the court via video conferencing in a special hearing. His five-day custody had ended today.Aaftab Ameen Poonawala, accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend Shraddha Walkar, today admitted in a Delhi court that he killed her “in the heat of the moment”. He also alleged that whatever is being said about him now is “not entirely true”.28-year-old Aaftab said he has been cooperating with the police, and has also given maps of the location where he dumped the body parts. He assured the court that he would provide all the details, but isn’t able to recall many things because it has been very long.Aaftab’s lawyer, Avinash, said that the police sought extended custody saying the Investigating Officer has received a sketch of a pond from Aaftab where they want to take him for further probe. “Aaftab told the court he is cooperating with the police, and the police are also treating him well. He said he is not misleading them or lying to them. The police also didn’t contest his claim in court,” he added. Aaftab will be taken to two ponds for the search of the body parts, one in Mehrauli forest and the other in Maidangarhi — both in south Delhi.During interrogation, Aaftab said he had thrown the saw and blade he used to chop off Shraddha’s body in the bushes of DLF Phase 3, Gurugram, Delhi Police sources said. A Delhi Police team has checked those bushes twice. He threw the meat cleaver in a dustbin at the 100-foot road in south Delhi’s Mehrauli, sources said.The forensics team today broke the bathroom tiles at Aaftab’s Chhatarpur flat where he murdered Shraddha, and found blood stains. The tiles have been sent to the lab for DNA tests.After the first day of the investigation, last Friday, the Delhi Police collected some evidence from the bushes in Gurugram, which has been sent for investigation to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. On the second day, last Saturday, the Delhi Police had gone to Gurugram with metal detectors but returned empty-handed. They also took Aaftab to the shop from where he had bought the saw blade, which is just 250 meters away from Aaftab’s house.

On Sunday, the police had recovered more human remains from the Mehrauli forest. They have so far sent 18 bones, including the base of a skull, and a decapitated jaw, for forensic examination to match with Shraddha’s father’s DNA samples. The central forensic lab has said the reports would be available in one or two weeks.

The police had last week recovered heavy and sharp cutting tools from Aaftab’s flat, which they suspect might have been used to chop off Shraddha Walkar’s body. They also found a heavy black polythene bag at Aaftab’s Gurugram workplace.

Sources say investigations into the six-month-old murder hinge on forensic reports, call data, and circumstantial evidence as there are no witnesses. Delhi police today told the court that 80 per cent of the investigation has been completed. The next few days are crucial for the investigation, as key evidence in the case is still missing.

Shraddha and Aaftab had moved to Delhi in May and four days later, following an argument over expenses and infidelity, he strangled her to death, later chopping up the body into 35 pieces that he kept in a fridge and disposed of in a jungle over 18 days, police have said. Aaftab’s narco analysis test will not be conducted on Monday, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) has said, as he has to take a polygraphic test before that.

Crime

Accused in air hostess sexual assault case was porn addict: Gurugram Police

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Gurugram, April 19: Gurugram Police said on Saturday that the accused in the air hostess sexual assault case was a porn addict, an official said.

Gurugram Police Spokesperson Sandeep Kumar said that the accused used to watch porn videos habitually, which was also confirmed from the mobile phone recovered from him.

He said that during police interrogation, it was found that the accused has a B.Sc. (OT) degree from a private institute from the years 2019-2022, and he was an average student in studies.

“For the last five months, he was working as a treatment machine technician in the ICU of the hospital. The accused going to the victim at the time of the incident was confirmed from the CCTV cameras installed in the hospital,” he said.

The Spokesperson said that during interrogation of the accused, it was also found that he had watched porn videos before the incident and even after committing the crime.

“Which is also being confirmed from the search history of the accused’s mobile phone. He was produced before the court on Saturday, from where he was sent to judicial custody for further proceedings,” he said.

Meanwhile, the SIT on Friday nabbed the accused, after analysing at least 800 CCTV cameras installed inside and outside of the hospital, who sexually assaulted the woman when she was on a ventilator.

The accused was identified as Deepak (25), a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The accused had been working as a treatment machine technician in the ICU of the hospital for the past five months and was arrested in the Sadar police station area on Friday.

An official privy to the investigation said that the accused has confessed to his crime in the matter.

“While investigating the incident, eight police teams checked the footage of 800 CCTV cameras installed in the hospital, and around 50 hospital staff, including doctors, were questioned about the incident. Keeping in mind the seriousness of the incident, the police teams investigated from every angle and collected a lot of information related to the incident, as a result of which the police got great success in identifying the accused who committed the crime,” said Arpit Jain, DCP (Headquarters).

On Thursday, Vikas Kumar Arora, Commissioner of Police, Gurugram, had constituted an SIT and ordered the identification and arrest of the accused.

As per the order of the Police Commissioner, an SIT was constituted under the leadership of Arpit Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Gurugram, in which a total of eight different police teams were given special directions and deployed to collect information and evidence related to the incident.

Dr. Sanjay Durani, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, said in a statement that: “We have been informed that the police have identified a suspect who has been taken into custody in connection with the ongoing investigation concerning allegations of sexual assault on a patient. On the basis of information provided to us by the police, we have suspended the suspect employee. As we await the final outcome of the investigation, we will continue to provide full support to the police.”

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Crime

Manipur govt launches verification of papers of arms license holders

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Imphal, April 19: The Manipur government has launched a drive to verify the licensed arms and asked all the district administrations to examine the papers of the arms license holders and arms dealers, officials said on Saturday.

A senior official said that the Commissioner (Home) has, in an urgent circular, asked the Deputy Commissioners of all 16 districts to take steps to verify the papers of arms license holders and arms dealers in their respective districts.

Accordingly, all the Deputy Commissioners directed the arms license holders and arms dealers to submit their papers in their nearest or respective police stations on or before April 25.

“Non-compliance with the orders may lead to penalisation and cancellation of arms license,” the official said, referring to the circular of the Commissioner (Home). Till March 6, around 1,000 looted and illegally held weapons, including many sophisticated arms, and a huge cache of ammunition, have been returned to the security forces since Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla appealed for the first time on February 20.

The initiative to recover the looted and illegally held arms began on May 31, 2023, when former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh made an appeal to all concerned to surrender the firearms looted from security forces and police armouries.

Officials said that before Singh’s resignation as Chief Minister on February 9, a total of 3,422 firearms had been voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and police stations in different districts.

Various official reports, political parties claimed that during the ethnic riots, which broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, over 6,020 varied types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and police outposts by the mobs, attackers and militants.

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Crime

Put under house arrest again, says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

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Srinagar, April 18: Senior religious and Huriyat Conference (HC) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said on Friday that authorities have placed him under house arrest, thereby denying him the right to offer congregational prayers during the day.

Mirwaiz Farooq said on X, “Every Friday I am put under arbitrary house arrest ! Putting pressure on me not to speak up, the ban also aims to weaken the centrality of Muslim institutions of the valley-the Jama Masjid, office of the Mirwaiz, and cause collective grief to Muslims and all those who oppose this authoritarian and sectarian outlook. My house detention case is still pending in court, where I am seeking relief from the Hon’ble High Court, but In such times patience remains our only strength.”

Mirwaiz traditionally delivers the Friday sermon at the Jamia Masjid in the Nowhatta area of old Srinagar city. He also heads the Anjuman-e-Nusratul Islam, a religious organisation that runs some educational institutions in Kashmir, including the Islamia High School in Rajouri Kadal area of Srinagar.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last month declared the Mirwaiz-headed Awami Action Committee (ACC) a banned organisation for five years. The ACC was formed in 1963 during the Holy Relic agitation by Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq. After the elder Mirwaiz was assassinated in 1990 by the terrorists, the ACC came to be headed by his son, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The MHA order said that the ACC has been encouraging youth to violence and is acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the state.

Mirwaiz Farooq, who is the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, has witnessed the desertion of several affiliates. As many as 12 Hurriyat-linked organisations have broken off from secessionism, reposing trust in the Constitution of India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that “separatism has become history in Kashmir”, and the unifying policies of the Modi government have eliminated separatism in J&K. He has also said this is a victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’.

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