Aarushi-Hemraj murders: Life imprisonment for Talwars
Updated
Ghaziabad, Nov 26 (IANS): A day after they were held guilty, a special CBI court Tuesday sentenced dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar to life imprisonment for killing their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj over five years ago.
Lawyers of the distraught couple, who were present in the court and immediately taken back to the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad district after the sentencing, said they would appeal in a higher court against the verdict.
The prosecution had sought death penalty for the Talwars, calling it a "rarest of the rare" case. But the counsel for the Talwars sought leniency from the court.
Delivering the verdict at 4.30 p.m., Special CBI Judge Shyam Lal said: "They are not menace to society. So, death sentence is not warranted."
The ends of justice will be served by sentencing them to life imprisonment, he said in his four-page judgment.
The judge also sentenced the Talwars to five years in jail for destruction of evidence and Rajesh to an additional year in prison for giving false information to investigators.
A fine of Rs.10,000 each was imposed on the couple on the murder charge, Rs.5,000 each for destruction of evidence, and Rs.2,000 on Rajesh for misleading police.
On Monday, the judge had convicted them for the murder of their daughter, saying they were "freaks" who "became the killer of their own progeny".
The dentist couple were convicted of killing their 14-year-old daughter and 45-year-old domestic help, Hemraj, on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, 2008. The Class 9 student was found with her throat slit and head battered in her plush Noida residence.
Police initially suspected the then missing Hemraj for Aarushi's killing but discovered his body from the terrace of the house the next day.
It marked the start of one of India's most keenly followed crime cases that took several dramatic twists and turns before the CBI finally blamed the Talwars for the gory double murder.
The Talwars say they are innocent and have vowed to fight for justice.
The Talwars were booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court also charged Rajesh under section 203 (misleading the probe).
The Hemraj family's lawyer Naresh Yadav came under attack from other lawyers in the court premises soon after he broke the news of the verdict against the Talwars Tuesday.
Yadav sprinted from the scene with police assistance and took shelter in the court. Outside, two groups of lawyers got into a heated argument and a scuffle with police desperately trying to keep them apart.
Key points of Aarushi-Hemraj murder judgment
The following are the key points in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder judgment pronounced by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad:
* The manner in which the murders were committed is not the handiwork of a single accused and rather the murders were committed and evidence destroyed by both the accused in furtherance of their common intention which is apparent from the facts and circumstances.
* The accused "cannot take advantage" of negligence or defective investigation of I.O., and the prosecution case "cannot be thrown away or dubbed as untrue" due to such negligence.
* It is proved from evidence on record that terrace door was locked from inside by the accused persons after taking away the body of Hemraj in the terrace and as such they were knowing well that dead body of Hemraj is lying in the terrace.
* No outsider(s) will dare to take Hemraj to the terrace in severely injured condition and thereafter search out a lock to be placed in the door of the terrace.
* It is trite in law that when there is a fight between ocular and documentary evidence, it is the documentary evidence which will prevail.
* This court reaches to the irresistible and impeccable conclusion that only the accused persons are responsible for committing this ghastly crime.
* There is a close proximity between the point of time when both the accused and the deceased persons were last seen together alive and as such the time is so small that possibility of any other person(s) other than the accused being the authors of the crime becomes impossible.
* The door of Aarushi's bedroom was fitted with automatic click-shut lock which could not be opened from outside without key but could be opened from inside without key.
* A man may tell a lie but the circumstances can never. Both the accused have admitted in their written statements under section 313 CrPC that on some occasions Nupur Talwar removed the key from Aarushi's lock and kept the same with her.
* No explanation has been offered by the accused as to how the lock of Aarushi's room was opened and by whom.
* The internet remained active in the night of the gory incident suggesting that at least one of the accused remained awake.
* There was no disruption in the supply of electricity in that night.
* No person was seen loitering near the flats in suspicious circumstances in that night.
* It is clear that the prosecution has placed a clinching wealth of circumstances from which the guilt of both the accused has been made out to the extent human instruments can apprehend.
* From the evidence it is proved that the accused persons disposed off/destroyed the scalpel, blood stained clothes worn by them during the commission of the offence, dressed up the scene of crime, cleaned private parts of Ms. Aarushi, covered the dead body of Aarushi with a flannel blanket.
* The accused covered Hemraj's body with a cooler panel, placed a bed-sheet on grill dividing two roofs, locked the door of terrace, concealed or destroyed the key of the terrace door which has not been found till yet.
* Murder and destruction of evidence were done by the accused with the intention to screen themselves from legal punishment. As such charge under section 201 IPC is fully proved against the accused persons.
* That golf club no.5 was thrown in the loft after commission of the crime and the same was produced after many months by the accused.
* That pattern of head and neck injuries of both the accused persons are almost similar in nature and can be caused by golf club and scalpel respectively.