Talwars seek deposition of CBI ex-director as witness

Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar on Tuesday approached a special CBI court here and sought deposition of former CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar as court witness. Kumar’s  investigation had claimed that their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj were murdered by servants.

The Talwars’ counsel moved an application before special judge Shyam Lal requesting for summoning of Kumar as court witness.  A separate request for summoning 12 others was also made. Posted at present as Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Kumar, a 1985 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, had investigated the case from June 2008 to April 2009 and arrested three servants of Talwar and their friends.

However, the investigation carried out by the team led by him had several loopholes and his role along with his former boss and the then CBI Director Vijay Shanker came under severe criticism from courts. 
A fresh team was instituted which carried out the investigation in the case. Kumar was also repatriated to his parent cadre. “We have submitted an application before the court asking for testimony of the persons who were listed as witnesses by the CBI but were not presented before the court for deposition,” defence counsel Manoj Sisodia said.However, CBI lawyer R K Saini said he will be filing a reply to this application countering the move as a court witness. “Let them call him as defence witness,” Saini said.

The list also includes name of Dr Richa Saxena who was a pathologist here and allegedly took samples of vaginal swabs from 14-year-old Aarushi’s body but the evidence got mixed up.

Other persons include inspectors and sub-inspectors of the CBI which were part of the prosecution witness list but were not called for deposition before the court.Aarushi was found dead with her throat slit in her bedroom on May 16, 2008. The initial suspicion went on Hemraj whose body was later found in the their terrace at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.

The allegations of involvement in the murder have been refuted by the Talwars who have claimed innocence in the case. Kumar’s botched up probe had kept three servants — Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal in jail for three months and also gave a clean chit to parents in the sensational case.