SC admits plea against HC acquittal of Talwars

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday admitted appe-als against the Allaha-bad high court verdict acquitting dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, nearly six months after they were set free in October last.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R. Ba-numathi, while admitting the appeals of Hem-raj’s wife Khumkala Ban-jade and the CBI, issued notice to the Talwars seeking their response.

Normally once a criminal appeal is admitted in the apex court, it takes at least a decade for the final hearing of the case to be taken up. As a result, hearing of appeals in Aarushi case is expected to be delayed.

Aarushi was found dead inside her room at the Talwars’ Noida residence with her throat slit on May 16, 2008.

Initial suspicion fell on 45-year-old Hemraj, who had gone missing, but his body was recovered from the terrace of the house a day later.

In 2013, the Ghaziabad court convicted the Talwars to undergo life imprisonment. However, the high court set aside their conviction and set them at liberty, holding that they could not be held guilty on the basis of the evidence on record. In its appeal against the acquittal, the CBI said that the high court’s conclusion that there was no evidence to prove the couple guilty was wrong on “many counts”.

It said the high court had rendered an erroneous verdict by acquitting the two doctors though there is ample circumstantial evidence to prove the guilt of the accused.

Hemraj’s wife also faulted the high court judgment for giving benefit of doubt to the dentist couple when their complicity in the murder of their daughter and petitioner’s husband has been conclusively proved.

Both the appeals prayed for quashing the High Court judgment and for punishing the accused.