Saket Court Rules on Overseas Video Testimony in Shraddha Walkar Trial
On June 1, the Saket Court in Delhi dismissed the prosecution's pending applications to record digital evidence from overseas tech officials in the Shraddha Walkar murder trial, while allowing them to file fresh applications under new video conferencing rules. The trial involves accused Aaftab Poonawala, who allegedly strangled Walkar to death in South Delhi's Mehrauli area in May 2022.
Additional Sessions Judge Hargurvarinder Singh Jaggi dismissed the applications but granted the prosecution liberty to move fresh applications under the Electronic Evidence and Video Conferencing (EE-VC) Rules, 2025. These new rules came into effect on July 7, 2025.
The prosecution, represented by Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey, had sought to record testimonies from nodal officers of Google, Bumble, Gmail, WhatsApp, and Hopper. These officials are based in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland.
Investigating Officer Inspector Ram Singh had moved multiple applications, which remained pending for over a year. The police stated that these overseas officials hold vital digital evidence related to the murder case.
Pandey argued that summoning all five nodal officers to appear physically in court would cause immense delay in concluding the trial. He highlighted the practical difficulties of securing international witnesses in person.
In response, defence counsel Akshay Bhandari argued that under the older Video Conferencing Rules of 2021, the consent of the accused was mandatory to record a witness's statement via video conference.
However, Judge Jaggi pointed out a "tectonic shift" between the 2021 and 2025 rules. The judge noted that the explicit safeguard requiring the consent of the accused in the 2021 rules was removed in the EE-VC Rules, 2025.
Because the state had filed its previous applications before the 2025 rules took effect, and one application on July 10, 2025, after the 2021 rules were repealed, the court ruled that the prosecution must file fresh applications under the current 2025 framework.