HC adjourns hearing on petition moved by Aarushi's parents

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday adjourned till Friday the hearing on a petition moved by parents of Aarushi Talwar challenging a CBI court order making them accused in the murder of their teenaged daughter and domestic help, Hemraj, three years ago.

The proceedings were adjourned by Justice B K Narain after senior counsel Gopal Chaturvedi, appearing for the Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, briefly mentioned the plea of his clients. There were no arguments on the merits of the case.

The petition has challenged the Ghaziabad court order of February 9 in which the couple has been made the accused on the basis of CBI's closure report and also charged them with engaging in criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.

According to Chaturvedi, the petitioners have submitted that the CBI court had passed its order "without taking into consideration the objections submitted by us".

Aarushi was found dead inside her Noida residence in May 2008 with her throat slit and the body of Hemraj was recovered later from the terrace.

The CBI, which was entrusted with the investigation in the case following an uproar over the alleged shoddy probe by Uttar Pradesh police, had recently submitted its closure report pointing fingers at the parents though it maintained there was no conclusive evidence.

However, the court decided to proceed with the trial against the couple observing that there was "enough evidence" against them.