Aaftab Poonawala, who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend Shraddha Walkar in May and is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, has refused to meet his family members, prison officials aware of the matter said.
They said though the 28-year-old has been imprisoned in Tihar since November 26, he is yet to submit to the prison administration the names of family or friends who could visit him in jail.
According to the prison manual, every prisoner is allowed to meet their family members or friends twice a week in the prison’s interview room.
Before a prisoner is allowed to meet any outsider, the prison superintendent takes the names of family members and friends, verifies them, and then gives permission in writing for the visitors to come to prison up to twice a week.
Apart from that, every prisoner — except those booked for heinous crimes such as under provisions of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act or UAPA — is allowed to use the jail’s phone for five minutes twice a day. For this, the prisoner must share the number of their contact and sign an affidavit.
Jail officials said that though Poonawala generally keeps to himself, he has supposedly told his cell mates that he is expecting to meet someone later this week.
To be sure, he is yet to submit the names of anyone to the jail superintendent.
“We have lodged Poonawala in a cell with two inmates where there is round-the-clock CCTV footage. His fellow inmates, who are accused of theft, are also ensuring that he does not harm himself or is assaulted by any other prisoner. Our officers who see him through the footage observed that he hardly talks to his fellow inmates. He spends time reading in his cell. Our superintendent briefed him about the visitation and phone usage rules. But he said he does not wish to meet or speak to anyone,” said a jail officer, on condition of anonymity.
Poonawala allegedly killed Walkar, 27, on May 18 at their rented accommodation in south Delhi’s Chhattarpur Pahadi. According to the police, he then chopped up her body into 35 pieces and dumped them in forested areas in and around south Delhi — a tactic that helped him avoid being caught till his arrest on November 12.
Jail officials said that they are surprised by Poonawala’s behaviour as he doesn’t even speak to his family over the phone, and because he withdrew the bail application that his counsel had filed at a city court last week.
“He only speaks to his counsel. Either he has resigned himself to his fate or he may have already planned his next move,” said the officer.
As of Tuesday, Poonawala made only one request to jail authorities — he asked the superintendent if he could get access to English books or novels, and was given The Great Railway Bazaar, a travelogue by American writer Paul Theroux.
