New Delhi/Ghaziabad:
A CBI court in Ghaziabad is expected to decide shortly on whether Nupur Talwar will go to jail. She has been accused with her husband Rajesh of the murders of their only child Aarushi and their domestic help. Mrs Talwar was refused bail this afternoon by a court in Ghaziabad where the Talwars are to be tried for murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The judge said that she does not have the jurisdiction to decide bail in this case. Mrs Talwar's lawyers then applied to a sessions court for bail which transferred the case to another CBI court, which is hearing the bail plea right now. If it is settled in her favour, she will not be imprisoned.
Officials at the Dasna Jail say that if Mrs Talwar is brought to prison, she will be kept tonight at Barrack No 13, which is reserved for women prisoners. She will be inmate No 70 if she arrives here.
Mrs Talwar arrived in the special CBI court in Ghaziabad this morning with her husband on the orders of the Supreme Court. She was heard reciting lines from the Hanuman Chalisa. The judge had issued a non-bailable warrant for Mrs Talwar last week after she ignored orders to show up in person so that her trial could begin. The Talwars asked the Supreme Court to cancel this warrant; the judges refused and asked her to appear in the Ghaziabad court today.
Her lawyers applied for bail on the grounds that she is a woman, and is therefore entitled to leniency. They also pointed out that Rajesh has already been granted bail and so Nupur should be treated at par. And they stressed that the trauma of losing her young child will be exacerbated by jail time. But the CBI opposed Mrs Talwar's bail, describing the crime that she is accused of as "heinous."
The Talwars had filed two appeals in the Supreme Court recently: they had asked for the warrant against Mrs Talwar to be suspended, and they want the Supreme Court to over-rule the Ghaziabad court which ordered that they must be tried for murder. The Supreme Court rejected the former appeal; the latter will be heard on Friday.
In 2008, the Talwars' daughter, 13-year-old Aarushi, was found with her throat slit in her bedroom at their apartment in the Delhi suburb of Noida. Initially, the family's domestic help, Hemraj, who lived with them, was considered the main suspect because he was missing. But hours later, his corpse was found on the Talwars' terrace. The Noida Police was attacked for a seriously mishandled investigation. It arrested Rajesh Talwar a week after the murders, but allowed the media access to the crime scenes which led to the destruction of evidence. The police officers handling the case also made inappropriate remarks about the Talwars and Aarushi at press conferences. The case was then transferred to the CBI at the Talwars' request. Months later, the CBI said that it believed four men who worked for the Talwars and their friends and neighbours had killed Aarushi and Hemraj after a night of drinking. But the agency was unable to prove this, and eventually, the men were released. The murder weapons were never located. Nor were the mobile phones that were used by Aarushi and Hemraj, which could have helped provide crucial details of their last hours alive.
In December 2010, the agency said it wanted to close the case because it had not found enough evidence against anyone; however, it said that it still believed Rajesh was the killer. The judge handling the case at the Ghaziabad court then ordered the CBI to continue its inquiry and said there was enough circumstantial evidence for Aarushi's parents to stand trial for her murder.