The Allahabad High Court Friday turned down the plea of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar against their trial for the 2008 twin murders of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
Two separate benches dealing with independent petitions of the mother and father took a common view, upholding the order of the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad ordering the trial of the parents.
While turning down Nupur Talwar’s plea, Justice B.K. Narayana directed her to appear before the special CBI court and seek bail from there within the next 15 days.
Likewise, while refusing to grant any relief to Rajesh Talwar, Justice Ravindra Singh directed him to abide by the Ghaziabad court’s order and appear before it March 22.
Both judges held that the order passed by the special CBI court was very much in “accordance with law”.
Commenting on the court verdict, Talwars’ counsel and senior advocate Gopal Chaturvedi said: “I have advised Rajesh and Nupur Talwar to challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court.”
However, that would be possible only after March 28 as the Supreme Court is closed for Holi for the next 10 days.
Welcoming the high court order, CBI counsel N.I. Jafri told reporters: “As per section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act, the onus to prove one’s innocence lies on the accused.”
“We have sufficient circumstantial evidence to hold both Rajesh and Nupur Talwar guilty of the twin murders as well as for destruction of evidence,” he added.
Fourteen-year-old Aarushi Talwar was brutally murdered in her Noida flat on the night of May 15-16, 2008. Hemraj was initially thought to be the killer but his body was found on the flat’s terrace a day later.
After months of investigation and public debate, the CBI named Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar, a well-known Noida dentist, as main accused.
However, after numerous rounds of brain mapping, narco-analysis and lie detector tests on Aarushi’s parents, the CBI Dec 29, 2010 sought to close the case as unsolved.
The Ghaziabad court rejected this Feb 9 and ordered that Aarushi’s parents be tried for her murder.
