New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has turned down a request by the parents of Aarushi Talwar to have their trial moved to Delhi from a Ghaziabad court in Uttar Pradesh. The Supreme Court today said that the reasons cited by the Talwars for a transfer to Delhi were not valid. The Talwars have been accused of murdering their 13-year-old daughter; they had petitioned that security at the Ghaziabad court was insufficient. In January 2011, Mr Talwar was attacked with a knife on his way into court by a man from Varanasi, believed to be mentally disturbed. Mr Talwar's lawyers say that as a result of that attack, his face remains partially paralysed.
The Talwars will now have to appear in the court in Ghaziabad on March 14, which has been fixed as the next date of hearing.
The CBI which is investigating the case had opposed the Talwars' request to move their trial. The agency said that the couple - both dentists - were trying to delay proceedings. The investigating agency says that Aarushi's parents have never asked for security.
Aarushi's murder in her parents' apartment in Noida in May 2008 has become one of India's biggest unsolved mysteries. Hours after she was found dead in her bed, her parents' domestic help, Hemraj, was discovered dead on the terrace. Mr Talwar, a dentist like his wife, was first arrested by the Noida police, then released by the CBI when it took over the investigation. In December 2010, when the CBI asked the Ghaziabad court for permission to close the case, the judge objected. The CBI said that though it did not have evidence against Mr Talwar, it believed he had killed his daughter. The judge asked for Aarushi's mother, Noopur, to be tried for the murder as well.