Talwar couple wrongly cleared of murder charges

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

Rajesh and Nupur Talwar have been wrongly cleared of charges that they murdered their teen daughter Aarushi and domestic help, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Supreme Court.

In its appeal against their acquittal by the Allahabad High Court last October, the CBI said that the court’s conclusion that there was no evidence to prove that the Talwars were guilty was wrong on “many counts”.

The Talwars’ daughter Aarushi was found with her throat slit in her bedroom just days short of her 14th birthday. The family’s domestic help Hemraj was suspected until his body was discovered the next day on the rooftop of the building where the family lived in Noida near Delhi.

Hemraj’s wife Khumkala Banjade who was the first to challenge the acquittal had said the High Court had accepted that her husband was killed and the investigating agency or CBI cannot abandon its responsibility to uncover the murder.

COMMENTSThe High Court’s verdict said there was no evidence to prove that the Talwars were guilty and freed them from jail. A trial court convicted Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in 2013 and they were jailed for life.

Both parents had denied the murder and insisted they were victims of botched investigations and unfair media coverage, damaging their defence.