NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Tuesday sent Aaftab Poonawala accused of allegedly strangulating and dismembering his live-in partner Shraddha Walker in May last year for initiation of trial proceedings. He will be produced before a principal district and sessions court on February 24th.

“Scrutiny of documents is complete… Section 302(murder) of the Indian Penal Code is exclusively triable by sessions court. Accordingly, the accused be produced before principal district and sessions judge on February 24 at 2 pm,” Metropolitan Magistrate Aviral Shukla said. He directed Poonawala to file an application in this regard before the session court.

Accused Poonawala replied in the affirmative to the magistrates’ question of whether he was provided with a physical copy and if the page were legible. He had requested the court for permission to carry a book of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a notebook, and a pen during the proceedings so that he could make notes during the proceedings.

The city police January 24th filed a 6000-page charge sheet in the case. The court took cognizance of the chargesheet on January 7th.