Aarushi case: CBI gets notice on Talwars' plea

New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea by murdered teenager Aarushi's mother Nupur Talwar seeking review of its order rejecting her plea challenging the special CBI court decision of not accepting the investigating agency's closure report and ordering that the parents be made accused in the murder.

An apex court bench headed by Justic A.K. Patnaik issued notice after senior counsel Harish Salve appearing for Nupur Talwar pointed to several infirmities in the CBI investigation.

The senior counsel said the evidence showed loopholes in the investigation, which overlooked several visible evidences.

The apex court Jan 6, 2012, had cleared the decks for the trial of the Talwar couple after it rejected their plea against being named the main accused in the 2008 murder of their 14-year-old daughter in their own residential flat in Noida.

The Talwars had approached the Supreme Court to overrule the verdict of a lower court that ordered the CBI to make them the main accused in the case.

Salve told the court that "mother (Nupur Talwar) has been charged when there is no evidence to level that kind of charges against her." The senior counsel told the court that repeated Narco test and brain mapping of Rajesh Talwar has found nothing against them.

While assailing the high court order rejecting their plea contesting the trial court taking cognizance against them, Salve told the court that it was held against the dentist couple that they showed un-necessary haste in cleaning the blood stains in the house.

Senior counsel told the court that entire cleaning of the house was done after a nod by the Uttar Pradesh police.

The court declined to stay the trial court proceedings sought by the senior counsel saying that next date of the hearing was April 11, 2012. Salve sought the stay of the proceedings as the court had issued notice on the review petition by Nupur Talwar.

Aarushi, a Class 8 student of Delhi Public School, was found with her throat slit in her bedroom at her parents' Noida apartment May 16, 2008.

The family's domestic help Hemraj, whom police initially thought to be the prime suspect, was also found killed on the apartment's terrace a day later.

The murders grabbed national headlines and every development was followed keenly -- the charges, counter-charges and court drama involving the parents and investigators.

Rajesh Talwar was arrested and kept behind bars for 50 days in connection with the crime but was later let off because of lack of evidence against him. The CBI then arrested Krishna and two other domestic helps in the neighbourhood, Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal, who too were let out on bail later.

In December 2010, the CBI filed a closure report in the case before the special court in Ghaziabad, but stated that it had circumstantial evidence against the Talwars in Aarushi's murder.

However, Talwars approached the court against the closure, demanding further investigation. The apex court too rejected the closure report, and in a dramatic twist summoned both the parents to face trial, and directed the CBI to prosecute them.

The court issued April 27 as the next date for hearing.