By Jenna Furman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
NEW DELHI, India —The trial of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar for the murders of their fourteen-year-old daughter, Aarushi Talwar, and their domestic helper, Hemraj, began Friday in the Ghaziabad Court after the Supreme Court dismissed the Talwar’s review plea to escape the standing trial.
The Talwars are charged with the May 16, 2008 murders of Aarushi and Hemraj. The couple is also charged with destruction of evidence. Rajesh Talwar is charged with misleading investigators in the double-homicide case.
The Court began hearing testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses on Friday. The couple continues to claim their innocence as to all charges against them.
The Talwars live in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, outside New Delhi, where Rajesh Talwar works as a dentist. Their daughter’s body was found in her bedroom at their home on May 16, 2008, and the battered body of Hemraj was found the next day on the terrace of the home. Both were found with their throats slit and other similar injuries.
However, there is no hard evidence linking the Talwars to the murders. The Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s federal police service, states that the circumstantial evidence suggests that Aarushi’s parents were involved in the murders. The murder weapon has yet to be recovered but the CBI believes the fatal injuries to the neck were made with surgical precision and thus, implicate the Talwars in the crimes. A golf stick recovered at the crime scene also inflicted identical injuries on the two victims.
The Talwars have called for re-investigation of the case because there were lapses present in the initial investigation of the case. They have stated that they believe they are being blamed for the murders because the CBI could not find evidence to link the real perpetrators to the murders.
The police and government investigators are accused of making successive failed inquiries into the double-murder four years ago and then pursuing the Talwars as the culprits to cover their failed investigative attempts.
Much of the forensic evidence in the home was either destroyed by the police themselves or by the media who were allowed full access to the crime scene. Postmortem evaluations were also deemed inconclusive. Additionally, police inquiries have contradicted each other in regards to key elements of the murders. The case has brought to the fore Indian concerns over the efficiency of their police and the criminal justice system.
While Rajesh is on bail for the crimes, on Thursday, June 7, the Supreme Court rejected Nupur Talwar’s petition for bail. She is held in Dasna jail, Ghaziabad. The Court stated that they were not “inclined to interfere in the trial court’s order.”
The couple stated that despite the Supreme Court’s denial of their review petition they continue to believe that “justice will one day prevail.”
For further information, please see:
Hindu – Talwars’ Plea Rejected, but Couple Unbowed – 8 June 2012
International Business Times – Aarushi-Hemraj Double Murder Case: Talwars’ Trial Begins – 8 June 2012
BBC News – India Aarushi Talwar Murder Trial Begins – 4 June 2012
The Guardian – India’s Middle-Class Murder Trial Stokes Concerns About Changing Values – 11 May 2012
