Aarushi-Hemraj murder case: SC rejects Talwars' plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a petition of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar seeking summoning of 14 witnesses in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case trial.

A bench of justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra also took strong exception to Talwars directly challenging the trial court's order before it and asked them to approach the high court.

"We don't intend to touch such matters. It's a wrong procedure to approach the Supreme Court directly," the bench said.

With today's order, the trial court can go ahead with its proceedings to record statement of the Talwar couple facing trial in the murder case of their teenaged daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.

They had approached the apex court challenging the order of the special CBI court rejecting their plea for summoning 14 additional witnesses, including ADG (Law and Order) and the then CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar, to record their statements.

The trial court had dismissed their petition on May 6 and ordered recording of statements of Rajesh and Nupur, who are the main accused. The statement of CBI investigating officer AGL Kaul, the last prosecution witness, has already been recorded.

The CBI case is that the murder of 14-year-old Aarushi five years ago was carried out by her parents and that no outsider was present.

In his deposition before the special court, Kaul, who headed the CBI probe, had submitted that the agency's investigation had revealed no evidence of any third person's entry into the Talwar residence.

Aarushi was found dead with her throat slit in her bedroom on May 16, 2008. The initial suspicion went on Hemraj whose body was later found in the terrace at their residence in Jalvayu Vihar in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.