New Delhi: Nine years after their daughter was murdered and four years after they were held guilty for the murder of Aarushi Talwar by a lower court, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were exonerated by the Allahabad High Court at 2:50 pm on Thursday.
Judgment was pronounced by a two-member Allahabad High Court bench, which said conviction can’t be based on suspicion and they have to be given benefit of doubt.
Sources in Dasna jail, where the couple is lodged, said that Nupur and Rajesh Talwar had been keeping track of the proceedings through television installed in their barracks.
“All the barracks have television sets. They were also watching the proceedings live as were some other inmates,” said a source from Dasna jail.
The source added that the couple was visited by Rajesh’s brother – Dinesh Talwar, who is an eye surgeon, in jail four days ago.
The couple, which has been behind bars since November 2013, will now finally walk out free. Although their release is likely to be challenged by CBI in Supreme Court very soon.
The couple was first convicted of murdering their daughter by a special CBI court in November 2013. CBI, which was tasked with investigating the case, had argued for capital punishment for the dentist couple arguing the murder to be in ‘the rarest of rare’ category. However, the court had sentenced Nupur and Rajesh Talwar to life.
The CBI judge, who had reportedly relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, had convicted the couple of not just killing their daughter, but also for destroying evidence and filing wrong FIR with police.
Thursday’s judgment is bound to bring relief to the Talwar family that has all this while pleaded innocence to the murder of Aarushi Talwar and their domestic help, Hemraj.
The body of Aarushi Talwar was found, with her throat slit, at her house just days before she was to turn 14. The family’s live-in domestic help Hemraj was believed to be the prime suspect till he too was found dead on the terrace of the same flat.
His throat was also slit and he had suffered injuries to his head.
After CBI took charge of the probe, in 2010 it submitted a closure report in which it claimed that the murders couldn’t be investigated in the absence of evidence. However, the case was reopened by the CBI court, which on November 25, 2013, found them guilty of the murders and sentenced them to life. The couple then filed an appeal in the Allahabad High Court challenging the previous court’s order.
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