Aarushi case: HC acquits Talwars over lack of proof

NINE YEARS ON Dentist couple will be released today; CBI to approach SC

ALLAHABAD/GHAZIABAD: The Allahabad high court acquitted on Thursday Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the 2008 murder of their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, giving the “benefit of doubt” to the accused in the face of insufficient evidence.

A bench of judges BK Narayana and AK Mishra set aside the life sentence given to the dentist couple by a special CBI court in 2013 and ordered that the two be released immediately from jail.

“Circumstantial evidence was not adequate for a conviction beyond doubt,” the court said, adding that neither the circumstances nor the evidence on record established the couple’s involvement in the crime.

The judgment brings down the curtains on one of India’s most sensational murder trials that sparked numerous conspiracy theories with many accusing the police of bungling the probe.

“We are grateful to everyone... I have seen them (Rajesh and Nupur) suffer,” said Aarushi’s grandfather BG Chitnis.

On May 16, 2008, Aarushi was found murdered inside her bedroom in the Talwars’ flat in Noida’s posh Jalvayu Vihar — her throat slit with surgical precision. The police initially suspected the missing house help from Nepal, Hemraj, but his decomposed body was found a day later from inside a locked room on the building’s terrace.

The police then began to suspect the Talwars and said Rajesh, the father, had murdered the two after finding them in an “objectionable” position. The case was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“We are satisfied with the judgment and are greatly relieved. We believe justice has been done as

The parents cannot be held guilty just because they were present in the house when murder took place. They should get the benefit of doubt. They are being set free.

ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT FILE PHOTO

in her bedroom; domestic help Hemraj suspected

found

on building terrace

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Talwar granted

CBI closure report gives

the court has set aside the trial court’s order for lack of sufficient evidence,” said defence counsel Dilip Kumar, who represented the Talwars.

The HC also pointed out “vari-

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Allahabad HC on bench parents’ plea of the double to life

Allahabad HC ous shortcomings” in the lower court’s judgment, while ruling in favour of the defendants who had challenged the verdict.