Did Talwars kill their daughter Aarushi? Allahabad HC verdict today

Allahabad/New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court is expected to deliver its verdict on Thursday on an appeal filed by Rajesh and Nupur Talwar challenging a CBI court order convicting them for the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj in 2008.

The couple were awarded life sentence by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad on November 26, 2013, a day after their conviction.

Nupur and Rajesh Talwar are at present serving their sentence in Ghaziabad's Dasna jail.

A division bench of the high court comprising justices B K Narayana and A K Mishra had reserved its judgement on September 7 on the appeal filed by the dentist couple, fixing October 12 as the date for the verdict.

The Aarushi murder case dates back to 2008, just a day after 14-year-old Aarushi was found dead (May 16, 2008) in her house in Noida with her throat slit and head bludgeoned; the Talwar family's domestic help Hemraj was also found dead on the terrace of the same house.

Just after Aarushi was found murdered all doubts were on 45-year-old Hemraj till his body was recovered the next day from the same building.

Hemraj’s throat was also slit and he had suffered injuries on his head. There were wounds all over his body and the door to the terrace was found locked from inside.

Noida Police suspected the two murders were committed by an insider and said the crimes bore ‘surgical precision’. Talwars’ former domestic help Vishnu Sharma was initially named a suspect in the case.

Soon after the incident, Delhi Police also joined the investigation.

As the Uttar Pradesh Police drew flak over shoddy investigation into the case which was making national headlines, the then chief minister Mayawati handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Six days after Aarushi’s body was found, police suspected it to be a case of honour killing and her dentist parents, Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, came under the scanner.

Noida Police alleged that Rajesh had committed the twin murders after finding Aarushi and Hemraj in an ‘objectionable’ situation. However, there was no material or forensic evidence to validate their claims.

On May 23, 2008 Rajesh Talwar, father of Aarushi Talwar was arrested for the twin murders.

On June 13, CBI arrested Krishna Thadaraj, an assistant at Rajesh’s Noida clinic.

On June 20, a lie detector test on Rajesh Talwar was conducted by the CBI.

A second lie detector test was also conducted on Aarushi’s mother, Nupur Talwar, after a few days as the first one was found to be inconclusive.

After spending almost two months in jail, Rajesh Talwar got bail on July 12.

As the investigation continued, narco-analysis tests were conducted on the Talwars.

CBI submitted a closure report on the case in December, 2010 on the basis of ‘insufficient evidence’. However, CBI named Rajesh Talwar as the prime suspect while giving a clean chit to the servants. Talwar was not charged due to lack of evidence.

On November 25, 2013, CBI judge Shyam Lal convicted the Talwar parents guilty of both the murders. They were also convicted for destruction of evidence.

After a day, the CBI court awarded life sentence to the Talwar couple.

The Talwars then filed an appeal in the Allahabad High Court challenging the CBI court’s order, the verdict for which is due on October 12, 2017.