Aarushi parents appeal against life sentence
Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar appeal against life sentence for murder of their daughter and domestic help.
Indian dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, jailed for life for the murder of their teenaged daughter and domestic help, have appealed against their sentence.
The appeal, filed on Wednesday, before the Allahabad High court in northern Uttar Pradesh state is expected to come up before a bench on Thursday, reports said.
A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on November 26, 2013, sentenced the couple to life imprisonment for murdering Aarushi, their 14-year-old daughter and Hemraj Bandade, their Nepali domestic help in May 2008.
The court had accepted the CBI probe report which said that the dentist couple had killed Aarushi and Hemraj in anger when they found them in an “objectionable position”.
Aarushi was found murdered, with her throat slit, inside the Talwars’ residence in Delhi. Hemraj, who was initially found missing and suspected to be involved in the killing, was found killed a day later on the terrace of the same house.
The investigations were handled badly by the local police who, among other things, were criticised for publicly making known their suspicions and leads hours after the murders were discovered, and for being unable to prevent crucial evidence from getting destroyed.
Under intense media scrutiny, the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state Mayawati transferred the case to the CBI. But, the elite investigative team filed a closure report in the case on December 29, 2010 citing “insufficient evidence”.
The Talwar couple interestingly challenged the closure report and demanded that the double murders be investigated thoroughly and the guilty be punished.
Ironically, the court later found them guilty on circumstantial evidence – a judgement that left many unconvinced about the Talwars’ guilt.