Aarushi case: Court verdict on Talwars’ appeal today
The Allahabad High Court is likely to pronounce a verdict in an appeal filed in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case on Thursday. The court had reserved its judgement in the case, on September 7.
A bench comprising justice BK Narayana and justice AK Mishra reserved its judgement in the appeal filed by parents of Aarushi, Dr Rajesh Talwar and Dr Nupur Talwar, who were convicted and sentenced for life imprisonment by the CBI court in Ghaziabad.
Dr Rajesh Talwar and his wife Dr Nupur Talwar were convicted in November 2013 in the double murder case of their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and their house help Hemraj.
Aarushi and Hemraj were murdered on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, 2008.
The police then considered Aarushi’s parents as prime suspects. The accusations made by the police at the time enraged the Talwars’ family and friends, who accused the police of framing the Talwars in order to cover up the botched investigation.
The case was then transferred to the CBI, which exonerated the parents and suspected the Talwars’ assistant Krishna along with two domestic servants namely, Rajkumar Sharma and Vijay Mandal.
In 2009, the CBI handed over the investigation to a new team, which recommended closing the case due to critical gaps in investigation. Based on circumstantial evidence, it named Rajesh Talwar as the sole suspect, but refused to charge him due to lack of evidence.
The parents opposed the closure, calling CBI’s suspicion of Rajesh as baseless. Subsequently, a court rejected the federal agency’s claim that there was not enough evidence, and ordered proceedings against the Talwars.
In a 208-page order on November 25, 2013, CBI judge Judge Shyam Lal (now retired) pronounced the Talwars guilty of both murders and destruction of evidence. The Talwars later challenged the decision in the Allahabad high court by filing the present appeal.
In January also, the court had reserved it’s judgement in the case. However, after it found contradictions in several CBI reports, it started hearing the case again.