Aarushi case: SC issues notice to CBI on Talwars's transfer plea

The Supreme Court today issued a notice to CBI on dentist couple-Nupur and Rajesh Talwar's plea for transferring the trial relating to the murders of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj from Ghaziabad to Delhi.

A bench of justices B S Chauhan and J S Khehar sought CBI's reply within four weeks after the couple claimed most of the witnesses were based in Delhi and moreover, Rajesh had faced a hostile atmosphere in the Ghaziabad court where he was assaulted with a knife by a person in January 2011.

On January 6, the apex court had cleared the decks for the couple's trial in their daughter Aarushi's murder case.

A bench of justices A K Ganguly (since retired) and J S Khehar had dismissed the couple's plea to quash criminal proceedings against them in the 2008 case involving the killing of Hemraj and their teenaged daughter in Noida on Delhi's outskirts.

The bench had said there was nothing wrong in the magistrate's order taking cognisance against them and putting them on trial.

Refusing to interfere with the lower court's order which had rejected CBI's closure report, the bench said the magistrate gave the ruling after applying his mind.

"We dismiss the appeal," the bench said while clarifying that its order would not prejudice the trial against the accused.

14-year-old Aarushi, the only daughter of the Talwars, was found dead with her throat slit at the family's Noida residence on the intervening night of May 15-16, 2008 and the body of Hemraj was found on the terrace the next day.