Talwars return home to sea of emotions

"When we were brought to the prison, we thought somebody would come soon and tell us, we have made a mistake and you can go. But nobody ever came," Rajesh Talwar had said in an interview. The official admission that he and his wife Nupur had been wronged finally reached them on Monday.

The release orders reached Ghaziabad's Dasna jail at 4:30 pm. The dentist couple walked out 20 minutes later — four years and 20 days after they were convicted and jailed for life for killing their only child Aarushi and family help Hemraj Banjade in 2008. The Allahabad High Court had on Thursday debunked the CBI's investigation and said the "circumstantial evidences" were not adequate for a conviction beyond doubt.

The Talwars held their bags while coming out, and had to pause when a battery of photojournalists captured their initial moments of freedom. Rajesh, in a white shirt and dark trousers, seemed tearful. Nupur, wearing a salwar kurta, kept a straight face.

Rajesh's brother Dinesh Talwar, a pillar of support since the beginning of the case that remains India's most sensational whodunit, had reached the jail along with their lawyers.

The release was delayed because a copy of that verdict had not been delivered to the jail. On Monday, the lawyers provided a copy of the order to the CBI court in Ghaziabad that issued the release orders.

As media personnel made it difficult for them to move, the Ghaziabad police escorted them to their car. While Rajesh and Nupur sat in the back, Dinesh occupied the front seat as their driver sped away.

Their car was escorted by the Ghaziabad police. Every time the car got stuck in traffic, media personnel would rush to get their first reactions but the windows stayed rolled up all the time. Their lawyer Tanveer Ahmad Mir requested the media to let the couple be and restore their dignity.

"When Rajesh was convicted, the only thing he said to me was that we have to fight for Aarushi till the end, and her name should come out clean. He never spoke about himself," said Dinesh.

"They are not in a condition to speak, they are yet to come to terms. We haven't been able to come out of the pain of losing our daughter. Our emotions have stayed within us for many years as we had to fight for ourselves," he said.

Asked if the fight for justice for Aarushi would continue, Dinesh said "My fight was for the truth and whatever I could do I have done. Nothing can heal the pain of losing Aarushi."

The couple reached Nupur's parents' home in Jalvayu Vihar, where they will stay for now. Their house, where the twin murders took place, is in the same block and has been rented out.

Nupur broke down on seeing her mother Lata Chitnis and hugged her and touched her feet. As the couple arrived, happy friends and family members came to visit them. "We are all emotionally drained and I don't even know if I can say if the two are normal," said Dinesh.

The CBI court had sentenced the Talwars to life imprisonment on November 26, 2013 for murder, destroying evidence and misleading investigators.

Thirteen-year-old Aarushi had been found murdered inside her bedroom in Noida's Jalvayu Vihar, with her throat slit and a fatal head injury, on May 16, 2008.

The police initially suspected 45-year-old Hemraj for the crime. But his body was found a day later on the terrace of the building.

The UP police first botched up the investigation and later said the parents killed their own daughter in a rage when they found her in bed with Hemraj. It was also said that the crime scene had been dressed up to mislead investigators.

Then CBI later took over the case. But its two teams — which probed the case at different stages — reached conflicting conclusions. The first one arrested a compounder and two helps, but failed to build a case. In 2010, the second team filed a closure report, which was rejected by the CBI court, resulting in a trial and the couple's conviction.