Aarushi Talwar Case: Supreme Court Admits Plea Challenging Parents' Acquittal

New Delhi: Two appeals challenging the acquittal of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar -- accused of murdering their teen daughter and domestic help Hemraj Banjade -- will be heard by the Supreme Court. The dentist couple had walked out of Ghaziabad's Dasna jail last October after they were acquitted by the Allahabad high court. Now, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which was in charge of the case and pushed for a death sentence, has gone to the top court. The other petition has been filed by Hemraj Banjade's wife Khumkula Banjade.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the CBI said the clean chit to the Talwars was wrong on "many counts".

The murder of Aarushi was one of the most intriguing whodunits in recent years. The teen was found dead in her bedroom days before her 14th birthday in May 2008. Live-in help Hemraj was the main suspect till his body was found hours later on the roof of the Talwar home in Noida.
 The case was handed to the CBI after Noida police botched the investigation. The agency said it wished to close the case as unsolved since there was not enough evidence to convict Rajesh Talwar, whom the investigators believed to be guilty. But it had to continue investigation after an order from the court.

In 2015, a lower court had convicted the Talwars of the crime on basis of circumstantial evidence and handed them a life sentence. Investigators had said the double murder was an inside job as the apartment had not been broken into and the "last seen" principle indicts the Talwars. The police had alleged that the Talwars were furious after finding their daughter in a compromising position with Hemraj, but offered no evidence.
Ms Banjade, who had petitioned the Supreme Court in December last year, said the High Court had accepted that her husband was killed and the investigating agency or CBI cannot abandon its responsibility to uncover the murder. "We've come to the Supreme Court for justice... the high court freed them (Talwars), they are killers... they should be punished," she had said.