Aarushi murder: Supreme Court orders trial of slain Aarushi's parents

NEW DELHI: Dentist couple Nupur and Rajesh Talwar will have to face trial for allegedly killing their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi with the Supreme Court today rejecting their plea for quashing proceedings against them in the 2008 sensational murder case.

A bench of justices A K Ganguly and J S Khehar dismissed the couple's plea to quash the proceedings against them in the trial court in the brutal murder of Aarushi, a class nine student, and Talwars' domestic aide Hemraj at their residence in Noida on Delhi's outskirts.

The bench said there was nothing wrong in the Ghaziabad Magistrate's order taking cognisance against them and putting them on trial as the trial judge passed the order after applying his mind.

"We feel constrained to observe that the court should exercise utmost restraint before interfering in the Magistrate's order," the bench said adding, "The Magistrate has applied his mind to come to the conclusion of taking cognisance in the case".

The bench also refused to go into the details of the case saying that it has to be heard by the lower court and the apex court cannot be turned into "mini trial court".

The bench's observation came when counsel for Nupur, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar sought to draw court's attention to various evidences to press his plea for quashing the case against the couple.

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

Nupur, who was also present in the court, was visibly upset as the bench had in the very beginning expressed its reservation in interfering in the lower court's order.

As soon as the the bench started to dictate the order, Nupur was advised by her lawyer to leave the court room and she left.

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 their domestic help, Hemraj, was found on the terrace the next day.