Court wants Aarushi parents tried for double murder

Rejecting the CBI’s case closure report which, ironically, was challenged by Aarushi’s parents, Rajesh and Nurpur Talwar, the court took note of the evidence produced against the couple. After reinterpreting the closure report, the court added Nupur as a co-accused in the case which has drawn egregious media attention.

The Talwars have been charged under sections 302 (murder), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

"The court has taken cognisance of the CBI report and summoned Rajesh and Nupur Talwar as accused in the case for February 28," CBI lawyer RK Saini said. Rejecting Rajesh Talwar’s petition against the closure report, which had named him as a suspect but had added that there was not enough evidence to charge him in the double murder, Judge Preeti Singh sough fresh investigations into the case.

Fourteen-year-old Aarushi and the Talwars’ domestic help, Hemraj, were found dead within a few hours of each other in May 2008 at the family’s home in Jal Vayu Vihar in Noida, a Delhi suburb.

The court’s rejection of the closure report means Judge Singh was convinced that the largely circumstantial evidence listed against the Talwars in it was sufficient enough to be considered against them in the trial. Saying that she would appeal against the order, the Talwars’ lawyer, Rebecca John said: "For the  last 3 years, there has been a circus around this case. We will challenge today's order in a superior court of law. We are confident that a superior court will examine the material and come to a different conclusion.”

John maintained that "this is a cover up by the CBI...We will prove the crime was committed by someone else."

After the case was handed over to the CBI by the UP police, Rajesh and Nupur were put through brain mapping and lie detector tests. A dentist by profession, Rajesh was arrested by the UP police a week after Aarushi’s murder, but was released three months later when the agency said it did not have enough evidence that could link him to the homicide.

Subsequently, the CBI said it suspected the hand of three men in the murder -- Krishna, who worked in Rajesh’s clinic, Raj Kumar, who worked at the home of a close family friend of the Talwars and Vijay Mandal, who worked for a family that lived in the same apartment block as the Talwars.

The three were arrested and put through narco-analysis, but the tests failed to give the CBI any leads to make a breakthrough. They were eventually released after the CBI admitted it had not evidence against them.

According to the CBI’s closure report, the post-mortem on Aarushi’s body indicated that she was killed between 12 am and 1 am on May 17, 2008. The report says that the circumstantial evidence suggested the crime scene was dressed up, which could only have been done by Aarushi’s parents. The presence of a Scotch whiskey bottle with blood stains of Aarushi and Hemraj on it indicated the involvement of insiders.

Besides, the Talwars could not explain why Aarushi’s room keys were untraceable the morning after the crime or if they had locked up the previous night. The CBI’s closure report suggests that the surgical cuts on the neck of both Aarushi and Hemraj were the work of trained hands and that the entire data on the girl’s cellphone were found deleted, which criminals would not do.

The murder weapon has yet to be recovered and the CBI has also not been able to establish a clear motive behind the double murder. But circumstantial evidence, including the place where Hemraj’s body was found, indicate the murders took place at a time when Aarushi’s parents were at home.