Ghaziabad:
A CBI court in Ghaziabad will today decide whether charges of murder, conspiracy and attempt to mislead the court need to be brought against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, main accused in the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
Over the last three days, lawyers for the CBI and the Talwars have argued in court over the framing of charges in this case.
The CBI has argued that the motive for Rajesh and Nupur Talwar to carry out the murders is clear from the post-mortem reports of Aarushi and Hemraj. The CBI also said the Talwars registered a false FIR in the case accusing domestic help Hemraj of murdering their daughter whereas they had committed the murders.
The Talwars' lawyers put up an unusual defence, even getting a golf club to court, to try and prove that the CBI theory that Aarushi and Hemraj were struck with Rajesh Talwar's golf club, was false.
The Talwars also said in court that the only evidence the CBI has in this case is circumstantial and that there is no hard evidence against them.
The Talwars are being tried for the double murder at a court in Ghaziabad. They have also been accused of destruction of evidence. Mrs Talwar has been in jail since April 30. Her request for bail is being heard by the Allahabad High Court. Mr Talwar was granted bail a few months ago, but the CBI wants it to be cancelled so that he, too, is sent to prison.
Aarushi was found with her throat slit in her bedroom in May 2008. Twenty four hours later, her family's domestic help, a Nepalese man named Hemraj, was found dead on the roof. The CBI, which has investigated the case, says that injuries on the bodies of Hemraj and Aarushi suggest they were hit by a golf club that was discovered at the Talwars' home. But the couple's lawyers today said that the dimensions of the golf club in question do not match the injuries to the victims.
They say that it's likely that Hemraj allowed his friends into the Talwars' home after the couple had gone to sleep. The group had drinks on the terrace, and some of the outsiders then went into the Talwars' home and tried to attack Aarushi in her room. The Talwars' lawyers say she was killed for resisting the assault. When the attackers went back to the roof and reported what had happened, they say, Hemraj may have tried to hit them. In retaliation, they allege, he was killed.
The Talwars argue that both victims were killed using a sharp knife or "Khukri."