In a move that could prove to be a severe jolt to the Talwars, the Allahabad high court on Friday dismissed Nupur and Rajesh Talwar’s plea for staying the summons issued by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad in connection with the murder of their teenage daughter Aarushi Talwar.
The court asked Ms Nupur Talwar to appear before it within two weeks’ time and apply for bail. Her husband, Rajesh, will also have to appear before the court to procure bail.
The judge said the lower court’s order to make the Talwars an accused in the case and issue summons was a “well-considered” order.
The verdict, which had been reserved earlier this week, came after the couple had filed two separate pleas in the higher court challenging the Ghaziabad court’s decision to try them for the murder of their teenage daughter. Ms Nupur Talwar had filed a criminal revision petition in the Allahabad high court. The petition says that the CBI conducted an incomplete investigation into the case and that, scientific methods of criminal investigation, like “touch DNA”, were not adopted to build or gather evidence against the accused. She had also filed a fresh affidavit in the court giving more evidence against Krishna — one of the three domestic help arrested earlier by the CBI — claiming that this evidence was not taken into account by the CBI.
During the hearing in the high court, Ms Nupur’s lawyers argued that since Ms Nupur was never an accused at any stage of the investigation, the CBI court in Ghaziabad was wrong in summoning her and then making her face a trial for the double murder.
The Talwars wanted the high court to strike down the order passed by the Ghaziabad court and direct the investigating agency for further investigation into the death of their daughter and their domestic help Hemraj.
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Ramesh: Safety measures must be in place
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
March 18: Amid concerns over safety of Jaitapur nuclear plant, environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday called for pressing off the “pause button” to look at the country’s “state of preparedness for emergencies like tsunamis” while setting up large scale nuclear projects.
Describing as “horrendous” what happened to Japan’s nuclear safety management in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and the resultant massive tsunami that hit the country on March 11, Mr Ramesh admitted that “We have to draw the appropriate lesson.”