The Allahabad High Court has acquitted Nupur and Rajesh Talwar in the double murder case of their daughter, Aarushi and domestic help, Hemraj. The Allahabad High Court bench comprising of Justice B.K. Narayana and Justice A.K. Mishra cleared the dentist couple of all the charges attributing to a lack of evidence.
The High Court said that the CBI failed to prove their 'guilt beyond reasonable doubt' and the couple could not be held guilty on basis of the evidence on record. Nupur and Rajesh Talwar were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 for the double murder, against which the couple filed an appeal in the High Court the same year.
Here’s the entire timeline of the murder case that had kept the entire country waiting for the court’s decision:
On May 16, 2008, 14 years old Aarushi Talwar was found dead in her bedroom with her throat slit and head bludgeoned.
The police reckoned it to be an insider’s job and initially suspected the family’s 45-years old domestic help, Hemraj, but two days later his body was also recovered from the terrace of the house. The UP police later suspected Aarushi’s parents who were dentists by professions as the murders were committed with surgical precision.
The Noida police believed that the couple murdered Aarushi and Hemraj in a fit of rage as they found them together in an 'objectionable' position in Aarushi’s room, but did not find any forensic or material evidence to validate their claim. The police also questioned Aarushi's close friend with whom she had around 688 conversations in 45 days before her murder.
In June 2008, due to discontentment over Noida Police’s probe, the CBI took over the case on orders of the Uttar Pradesh government. Rajesh Talwar along with the other domestic help, Krishna were arrested by the CBI.
There were mass protests seeking justice for Aarushi and her parents amidst allegations that the police was framing the parents to cover up their mishandled investigation, omission in evidence and neglecting basic facts.
Multiple lie detection tests were conducted on the couple at CFSL, Delhi, which was found inconclusive. The CBI ultimately declared the case ‘inconclusive’. A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court that challenged the narco-analysis tests conducted on Rajesh Talwar.
However, the court rejected the PIL and in January 2010, the CBI filed an application to conduct narco test on the couple.
In December 2010, the CBI submitted its closure report that stated that the murder case had no evidence and gave a clean chit to the servants, naming Rajesh Talwar as the prime suspect in the double murder. The special court rejected CBI’s report and ordered trial against Aarushi’s parents. The court charged them with murder and destruction of evidence.
In February 2011, the couple filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court to get the trial court’s summons against them quashed, which was dismissed by the court which ordered to start criminal proceedings against them. The couple then approached the apex court to get the trial against them stayed.
However, the court dismissed their plea and allowed the trial. Special Judge S. Lal sentenced the couple to life imprisonment on November 26, 2013. The couple were serving their sentence in Dasna Jail ever since.
Aarushi Talwar murder case is one of the most sensationalised news of the past decade, with a movie made and a book written on the double murder. The case is one the examples of gross delay injustice by the Indian Judiciary, with a judgment that took 9 years in making.
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