Allahabad HC acquits parents Talwars in Aarushi murder case

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday acquitted Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the murder of their teenage daughter Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj in 2008, saying they could not be held guilty on the basis of the evidence on record.

The verdict ends a nine-year ordeal of the parents who were found guilty by a CBI court of murdering 14-year-old Aarushi.

A division bench of the court comprising justices B K Narayana and A K Mishra upheld the appeals by the Talwars against the Ghaziabad CBI court order sentencing them to life imprisonment on November 26, 2013.

Pronouncing the verdict in a packed courtroom, the bench held that as per the circumstances and the evidence on record the dentist couple could not be held guilty.

Nupur and Rajesh Talwar have been serving their sentence in Ghaziabad's Dasna jail.

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 the shoddy investigation into the case which was making national headlines, the then chief minister Mayawati handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).