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Aarushi Case
Talwars to be tried for daughter’s murder
Told to appear in CBI court on February 28
Our Correspondent

Ghaziabad, February 9
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here today rejected the closure report in the murder case of Aarushi Talwar and ordered that her parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar be tried for killing their teenaged daughter.

CBI Special Magistrate Preeti Singh passed the ruling against the dentist couple, setting the ball rolling for the trial in the case. Aarushi and the family's domestic help Hemraj were found murdered under mysterious circumstances in May 2008.

The parents have been summoned to appear in court on February 28 and explain why they should not be booked under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

The CBI had filed the closure report and sought court permission to close the case as it felt there was no scope for further investigation. It had, however, made Rajesh Talwar the prime suspect but said that it had no evidence to convict him. Talwar contested this and asked for a copy of the closure report but his request was denied.

Talwar had also submitted a 90-page rebuttal against the closure report.

“Today, the court had three options. Either to accept the closure report and close the case or ask for further investigation. The court went for the third option of treating the submitted papers as chargesheet and issued summons to Aarushi’s parents, making them accused in the case. This time, the court interpreted the closure report differently and added Nupur Talwar too as co-accused,” said RK Saini, CBI lawyer.

Nupur and Rajesh Talwar's lawyer Rebecca John said they would challenge the order in a superior court. “The parents have only been summoned. We will see what happens on February 28. We will deal with it. There is no question of their arrest. It's not a final order. We propose to challenge it in a superior court,” said John.

Nupur Talwar said: “It is a very unfortunate judgment. We will challenge this judgment in the superior court. The court has not looked into our 90-page protest petition.”

On May 16, 2008, Aarushi Talwar (14) was found dead at her bedroom with her throat slit. The next day domestic help Hemraj's body was found on the terrace of their residence. Initially, Talwar’s former domestic help Vishnu Sharma was named suspect.

The Noida police had then arrested Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar on May 23, claiming that it suspected this to be a case of honour killing. The case was later handed over to the CBI, which arrested Talwar's compounder Krishna on June 13. Vijay Mondal, the domestic help of one of Talwar's neighbours, was also later arrested by the CBI. Subsequently, Talwar was released on bail as till then there was no evidence against him. Later, the CBI also released the servants on same grounds.

Vandana Talwar, sister-in-law of Rajesh Talwar, told mediapersons that Aarushi’s parents’ fault was that they were at the house. “How can they say who killed her when they too do not know. They were asleep in their rooms and could not hear anything. The CBI team too had observed that with door closed and AC on one could not hear anything from other room,” she said.

FC Sharma, lawyer of Krishna, said, “The CBI has given a clean chit to the servants. We will move the court to get justice for them too as they have suffered a lot. The court’s cognizance points that the Noida police theory was right and it was moving in right direction.”