Allahabad HC rejects Talwars' plea to examine witnesses

The Allahabad high court on Tuesday rejected a petition of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar seeking examination of 14 more witnesses in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.

Justice Rajesh Dayal Khare dismissed the petition of the couple who are key accused in the twin murder case, saying, "There is no need to force the prosecution to call witnesses other than those it deems proper."

CBI counsel Anurag Khanna had during arguments opposed the plea of the Talwars and submitted that their petition was filed with a view to delaying the trial process.

"The court was of the view that the trial court had the right to decide which of the witnesses should be summoned and their statements be recorded," he said.

The Talwars had moved the high court after being ticked off by the Supreme Court for adopting "a wrong procedure" by approaching it directly without having first moved the high court.

Rajesh and Nupur had challenged an order of the special CBI court at Ghaziabad of May 4 turning down their request for summoning and recording statements of 14 witnesses, including top IPS officer Arun Kumar who is at present the ADG (Law and Order) of Uttar Pradesh and was a joint director of CBI during the probe.

Aarushi, 14, was found murdered inside her room at their Noida residence in May 2008. Initially, the needle of suspicion had pointed towards Talwars' domestic help Hemraj as he was untraceable. However, his body was recovered from the terrace of the house the next day.

In February 2011, the special court at Ghaziabad had expressed the view that there was enough evidence against Rajesh and Nupur and initiated proceedings against them.