New Delhi: A police van carrying Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner, was attacked by some sword-wielding people outside the Forensic Science Laboratory in Rohini where he was taken for a polygraph test Monday, sources said. A car stopped the police van in the evening after overtaking it. A few people came out of the car and started attacking the vehicle carrying Poonawala, they said.
The van was driven out of the spot while two attackers were detained, the police said. They added the incident took place around 6.45pm.
In videos of the purported incident circulating on social media a police personnel could be seen pulling out his service revolver to disperse the attackers carrying swords.
In one of the clips, a few attackers claimed that they belonged to a right-wing group and that they intended to chop Poonawala into pieces to avenge the killing of Shraddha Walkar.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) G S Sidhu said, “Two persons have been detained for questioning.” According to the police, the two detained have been identified as Kuldeep and Nigam, they said. A case has been registered at the Prashant Vihar Police Station in connection with the incident, the police officer said.
Reacting to the incident, Hindu Sena national president Vishnu Gupta, said, “Whatever these activists have done is by reacting to their personal feelings. The whole country got to know how Poonawala cut a Hindu girl into pieces. However, the organisation does not support anything which is against the Constitution. We believe in the law.”
Poonawala allegedly strangled Shraddha Walkar and cut her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence in Mehrauli in south Delhi, before dumping them across the city over several days. He was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody, which was further extended by five days November 17.
November 22, Poonawala was sent to police custody for four days. The court November 26 sent him to judicial custody for 13 days.