Mehrauli killing: FSL team in Tihar for post-narco analysis of accused Aaftab Poonawala

A four-member team of the Forensic Science Laboratory here reached Tihar Jail on Friday along with the investigating officer of the Shraddha Walkar murder case for a post-narco analysis session of accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala, officials said.

They said the FSL team and the officer arrived in Central Jail No. 4 for a ‘post-test interview’ with Poonawala.

The interview was expected to start from 10 am and go on till 3 pm but it was delayed. The team reached the prison around 11:30 am.

After the session, Poonawala will be informed about the replies he gave in his narco analysis test on Thursday. This arrangement has been made as per a court order in view of the risks involved in his transportation, the officials said.

Poonawala’s narco analysis test, which went on for more than two hours at a Rohini hospital, was completely successful.

Sources in the FSL had earlier said the answers the accused gave during the narco test and a polygraph test held earlier will be analysed, and he would be informed about his replies as well.

Twenty-eight-year-old Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Walkar and cut her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in South Delhi’s Mehrauli before dumping them across the city over several days.

Narco analysis 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.

In the hypnotic stage, the person becomes less inhibited and is more likely to divulge information, which would usually not be revealed in the conscious state.

Investigating agencies use this test after other pieces of evidence do not provide a clear picture of a case.

The Delhi Police had earlier said it sought Poonawala’s narco analysis test as his responses during interrogation were “deceptive” in nature. The Supreme Court has ruled that narco analysis, brain mapping, and polygraph tests cannot be conducted on any person without his or her consent.

Also, statements made during this test are not admissible as primary evidence in the court, except under certain circumstances when the bench thinks that the facts and nature of the case permit it.

Poonawala was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody, which was further extended by five days on November 17. The court on November 26 sent him to judicial custody for 13 days.

(With PTI inputs)

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