New Delhi: 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. The verdict ends a nine-year ordeal of the parents who were found guilty by a CBI court of murdering 14-year-old Aarushi in a fit of rage because they suspected her of having an affair with Hemraj.
A division bench of the court comprising justices B. K. Narayana and A. K. Mishra upheld the Talwars’ appeal against the CBI court order sentencing them to life imprisonment on 26 November 2013.
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.
Following is the chronology of events in the 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case:
■ 16 May 2008: Aarushi Talwar found dead in her bedroom. Domestic help Hemraj suspected as the killer.
■ 17 May: Hemraj’s body found on the terrace of Talwars’ residential building.
■ 19 May: Talwar’s former domestic help Vishnu Sharma named suspect.
■ 23 May: Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar arrested as a key accused.
■ 1 June: CBI takes over the probe in the case.
■ 13 June: Talwar’s domestic help Krishna arrested by CBI.
■ 26 June: CBI declares it a “blind case”. Rajesh Talwar denied bail by a special Ghaziabad magistrate.
■ 12 July: Rajesh Talwar granted bail.
■ 29 December: CBI submits closure report. Gives clean chit to servants, but points fingers at parents.
Aarushi murder case: Allahabad high court acquits Rajesh, Nupur Talwar
■ 9 February 2011: Court takes cognisance of CBI report and asks it to continue with prosecution charging Aarushi’s parents with murder and destruction of evidence.
■ 21 February: Talwars approach Allahabad HC for quashing trial court summons.
■ 18 March: Allahabad HC dismisses the plea.
■ 26 November 2013: Rajesh and Nupur convicted for the double murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad.
■ 7 September 2017: Allahabad HC bench reserves judgment on parents’ plea and fixes 12 October as the date of verdict.
■ 12 October 2017: Allahabad HC acquits Aarushi’s parents.