Verdict on Talwars' 2nd plea against warrants also on Friday

Justice Ravindra Singh today reserved the judgement on Talwar's petition for pronouncement of verdict on March 18. Significantly, the judgement on a criminal revision petition filed by Nupur Talwar challenging the special CBI court's decision to initiate criminal proceedings against the dentist couple was also earlier reserved, by another bench, for pronouncement on Friday.

Arguing on behalf of Rajesh, counsel Samit Gopal argued that the dental surgeon was out on bail and the Ghaziabad court had issued the bailable warrants on February 28 without having cancelled the bail and hence the order was not valid. However, CBI counsel Nazrul Islam Jafri and Anurag Khanna and government advocate D R Chaudhary, who appeared for Uttar Pradesh government, submitted that the warrants were issued "only to ensure that the couple appeared before the CBI court as they had failed to do so in the past despite issuing of summons".

The CBI court at Ghaziabad had issued the warrants after rejecting an application filed by the Talwars who had sought exemption from personal appearance before the court. The court had, on February 9 last, decided to initiate proceedings against the Talwars holding that there was "enough evidence" against the couple, though neither of them had been named as suspects in the closure report submitted by CBI.

14-year-old Aarushi was found murdered in her house in May, 2008 and the body of the Talwars' domestic help Hemraj was recovered from the terrace of their house a day later.