Aarushi murder case: It's Talwars, rules court

Rajesh Talwar and his wife Nupur were on Monday held guilty for the murder of their daughter, Aarushi, and domestic help Hemraj in their Noida house five years ago. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on Tuesday.

Terming the killing of the 14-year-old girl as breach of commandment “though shall not kill”, a special court on Monday also held the dentist couple guilty of destruction of evidence in the murder on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, 2008. In his 204-page judgment, additional sessions judge Shyam Lal quoted the Koran and said: “Take not life which God has made sacred.”

Quoting a famous proverb ‘Dharmo Rakhshita Rakshita, the court said: “If we protect dharma, dharma will protect us. If we protect law, law will protect us. Both the accused have flouted the ferocious penal code of the land and are therefore liable under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Rajesh Talwar has been additionally slapped with section 203 (giving false information regarding committing the crime) of the IPC.

Holding the Talwars guilty, the judge said: “Now is the time to say omega in this case, to perorate it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused are the perpetrators of the crime in question. The parents are the best protectors of their own children. That is the order of human nature, but they have been freaks in the history of mankind where the father and mother became the killer of their own progeny. They have extirpated their own daughter who had hardly seen 14 summers of her life and the servant without the compunction of terrestrial terrain in the breach of the commandment “though shall not kill” and injunction of Holy Koran ‘take not life which God has made sacred’.”

The couple broke down after the verdict and later issued a statement, saying: “We are deeply disappointed, hurt and anguished for being convicted for a crime which we have not committed.

We refuse to feel defeated and will continue to fight for justice.”

The lawyers of the Talwars said they will appeal against the verdict in the higher court.

The double murder made headlines after reports suggested that it was a case of honour killing by the parents after they suspected their daughter of a liaison with Hemraj who hailed from Nepal.

After two adjournments since morning, the judge, who is to lay down office this month end, arrived in the high-security court room at 3.25pm and summoned both the accused.

Rajesh was arrested by the Noida police after then inspector general Gurdarshan Singh alleged that he had murdered Aarushi. Later, he was released on bail after the case was handed over to the CBI.

Ironically, the CBI, which got the case within a fortnight of the murders, initially gave Talwars a clean chit and pinned the blame on three domestic help – Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay - who were arrested. However, the agency could not file a charge sheet in the stipulated three months, paving the way for their release on bail. Fakir Chand Sharma, counsel for one of the domestic help, said: “I was opposing tooth and nail the charge against all domestic help as there was no evidence against them.”

Then CBI director AP Singh was of the opinion that no case was made against the three domestic help and constituted a new team to probe the case afresh. The CBI later filed a closure report, saying though there was enough suspicion about the role of the parents in the murder, they had no direct evidence to prove it.

The CBI judge took on record the closure report and after perusing it, decided to press murder charges against the dentist couple.