Mehrauli killing: Second session of polygraph test underway

NEW DELHI: The second session of the polygraph test on Mehrauli murder accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala is underway at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Rohini, officials said on Thursday.

The test could not be conducted on Wednesday as the 28-year-old accused was down with fever and cold, they said.

FSL, Rohini Director Deepa Verma said, ''The test is going on and if need be, the accused can be called again on Friday.'' Sources at the Ambedkar hospital said Poonawala's medical test will be performed after the completion of the polygraph test and the results are expected in two days. Narco analysis of the accused test can only be conducted after getting his medical report.

Poonawala's narco analysis is likely to be conducted on Monday, the sources said.

The delay in the completion of the polygraph test has also put off the narco test.

A polygraph test records physiological phenomena such as the blood pressure, the pulse rate and the respiratory rate, and the data is used to determine whether the person on whom the test is being performed is speaking the truth.

Narco analysis, on the other hand, involves administering medication, which reduces the self-consciousness of the person on whom it is being conducted and allows him to speak freely.

Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar (27) and sawed 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 those across the city over several days past midnight.

Walkar was allegedly killed in May.

Poonawala has to undergo a set of tests that will help ascertain his emotional, mental, physiological and psychological well-being. Narco analysis cannot be conducted on him if he is found to be ''disturbed'' in the preliminary tests. The accused had undergone the first session of the polygraph test, also known as the lie detector test, on Tuesday.