 | « Back to article | Print this article |
The Supreme Court on Monday admitted for hearing an appeal against the acquittal of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the 2008 twin murder case of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
The plea was filed by Khumkala Banjade, the wife of Hemraj.
A bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi granted permission to file the special leave petitions and summoned the original case records from the trial court.
The dentist couple were acquitted by the Allahabad high court in the twin murder case in October last year.
Banjade had filed an appeal on December 15 last year against the Talwars' acquittal in the case. Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation also filed an appeal against their acquittal in the case.
On February 9, retired special CBI judge Shyam Lal, who convicted Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Tawar in the case in 2013, had also moved the apex against the high court judgement seeking expunction of certain observations.
He had said that the criticism against him in the Allahabad High Court verdict was "disparaging" and "unwarranted".
On October 12 last year, the high court acquitted the couple, saying they could not be held guilty on the basis of the evidence on record.
The high court verdict further said that the trial judge took evidence and the circumstances of the case for granted and tried to solve it like a "mathematical puzzle when one solves a given question and then takes something for granted in order to solve that puzzle and question".
It had also said the point is that "the trial judge cannot act like a maths teacher who is solving a mathematical question by analogy after taking certain figure for granted".
The retired judge had said that the strictures passed against him were ultimately going to affect his reputation as an impartial and transparent judge and should be expunged.
The CBI court at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh had sentenced the Talwars to life imprisonment on November 26, 2013 in connection with the case. Before the high court order, they were serving life sentences in Ghaziabad's Dasna jail.
Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found dead inside her room in the Talwars' Noida residence with her throat slit in May 2008. The needle of suspicion had initially moved towards 45-year-old Hemraj, who had gone missing but his body was recovered from the terrace of the house two days later.
As the Uttar Pradesh Police drew flak over a shoddy probe into the case which was making national headlines, then chief minister Mayawati had recommended a probe by the CBI. The case was handed over to the agency.