Talwars held guilty of Aarushi, Hemraj murders

Ghaziabad  :  Bringing the curtains down on over five years of dramatic twists and turns in the sensational Aarushi Talwar whodunit, a crime that had the nation riveted for its intriguing logic, a special CBI court Monday held the parents – Rajesh and Nupur Talwar – guilty of the teenage girls’s murder, saying they were “freaks??? who “became the killer of their own progeny”.

The couple – who were well known doctors with a thriving practice – were also convicted for the murder of their domestic help Hemraj.

Delivering the much-awaited verdict at 3.25 p.m., Special CBI Judge Shyam Lal said that both the accused (Talwars) have “flouted the ferocious penal law of the land” and therefore are liable to be convicted in the double murder case.

“Now is the time to say omega in this case. To perorate, it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused are perpetrators of the crime in the question. The parents are the best protectors of their own child that is in order of human nature but they have been freaks in the history of mankind where the father and mother became the killer of their own progeny,” the judge said in a 204-page judgment.

It added: “They have extirpated their own daughter who had hardly seen 14 summers of her life and the servant without compunction from terrestrial terrain in the breach of commandment “Thou shalt not kill”.

The court also quoted holy the Quran, saying, “Take not life which God had made sacred.???

The quantum of punishment would be pronounced Tuesday. The maximum punishment is death.

Immediately after the judgment, the Talwars broke down. In a statement released by their lawyer, they said they were “deeply disappointed” and vowed to fight for justice to higher courts, including, if need be, to the Supreme Court, where the curtains might rise for another prolonged bout of legal drama and emotional theatre.

The dentist couple have been convicted of killing their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and 45-year-old domestic help on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, 2008. The Class 9 student was found with her throat slit and head battered in her plush Noida residence.
The next day, police recovered the body of their domestic help Hemraj from the terrace.

As the media was not allowed inside the packed courtroom, it was Hemraj’s lawyer Naresh Yadav who came out and announced the “guilty” verdict.

He said when he entered the courtroom, the judge wanted to know if the couple was present. When they were pointed out, the judge looked at them and pronounced the verdict.

The court also said: “If we protect “Dharma”, Dharma will protect us. If we protect “law”, law will protect us. Both the accused have flouted the ferocious penal law of the land …???

The Talwars were booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court also charged Rajesh under section 203 (misleading the probe).

The judge found the couple guilty of “secreting and obliterating the evidence??? in the murder to “screen themselves from legal punishment”.

“They are on bail. Their bail is cancelled and sureties are discharged. Let both the accused be taken into custody and sent to jail,??? the order said.

The couple was whisked away by police to Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad.

Talwars’ lawyer Tanvir Ahmed Mir refused to give details of the ground on which the court convicted them. He also refused to say whether the court termed it as honour killing.

Rajesh’s brother, Dinesh Talwar, also a doctor, termed the judgment “a miscarriage of justice.”

The case was a virtual whodunit as it took several twists and turns.

Initially, police in Noida arrested Rajesh for the double murder, with officials speculating it could be an act of “honour killing” as the girl and the servant had been found by the father in an “objectionable but not compromising position???.

But the police probe came under attack, and the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI first gave a clean chit to the Talwars and arrested the lab assistant of the Talwars and two others.

But the three were released on bail after no concrete evidence was found against them.

Facing flak over the inept investigation, then CBI director Aswani Kumar formed a new team. It was this team that again pointed the finger at the Talwars.

The latest trial got over Nov 12 – almost after 19 months – during which the CBI presented about 90 witnesses to prove that the parents were indeed guilty of the crime.

The Talwars maintain they did not kill their daughter or domestic help and that the CBI conclusions were based on presumptions, conjectures and surmises.