ANI Photo.
New Delhi: Visuals from court premises where Aftab Poonawala, the accused in the murder case of Shraddha Walker, was produced showed a large crowd of lawyers demanding a death sentence while some shouted, "hang the Jihadi".
The term 'Love Jihadi' is propagated by the right wing to accuse Muslim men of "luring" Hindu women into conversion to Islam.
After the concern of a possible attack on Poonawala, police produced him before the court via video conference at 4 pm on Thursday, NDTV reported.
Lawyers staged a demonstration voicing against Poonawala, who allegedly killed his live-in partner, cut her body into more than 30 pieces and dumped it in different areas of Mehrauli forest in Delhi.
Poonawala and Shraddha Walkar met through the dating app Bumble and moved to Delhi last May. After barely four days of being together in a rented flat in Delhi's Mehrauli, Poonawala allegedly strangulated her. He kept her chopped body parts in a fridge and dumped them in nearby woods over the next 18 days, according to police.
The confession of an accused in police custody does not count as evidence unless he makes it before a judicial officer.
Shraddha's family opposed her relationship inter-faith with Poonawala. After her family lost contact with her, her father, Vikas Walkar, met her friends, and they informed him that they had lost touch with her too. Then he approached the police around a month ago.
Vikas told NDTV that in his presence, police asked Poonawala whether he knew him, and Poonawala said yes. He continued that Shraddha was no more, and it made him devastated, Vikas said.