Aarushi murder: Talwars walk free after four years

NEWDELHI: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were released from a jail on Monday, four days after being acquitted in the murder of their only daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj in their apartment in Noida in 2008.

The Talwars have been lodged in Dasna jail since November 2013 after a trial court in Ghaziabad sentenced them to life imprisonment for the murder of Aarushi and Hemraj.

They walked out of jail after their lawyers provided a copy of the Allahabad high court order to a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ghaziabad, which then issued an order to the prison authorities to release the couple. Rajesh Talwar’s brother Dinesh and their lawyers Manoj Sisodia and Tanveer Ahmed Mir went to the Dasna Jail to receive them.

“The Allahabad high court’s decision is a stamp on the innocence of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar. This is what they deserved,” said Mir. The Allahabad high court overturned the trial court’s verdict on October 12 and acquitted them, giving the “benefit of doubt” to the accused in the face of insufficient evidence. The court also pointed out “various shortcomings” in the lower court’s judgment, while ruling in favour of the defendants who had challenged the verdict.

The judgment brought 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.

The dentist couple will visit the clinic they were helping run at the jail hospital either weekly or fortnightly if the authorities permit.