The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the petition of Dr Rajesh Talwar and his wife Nupur to transfer the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case from Ghaziabad to Delhi. While rejecting the petition the apex court observed that personal inconvenience cannot be made a ground for transferring the case.
The two-judge bench of justices BS Chauhan and JS Khehar said that it believed that adequate security had been provided to the Talwars, who were not present in the court. The court dismissed the petition saying that there was no grounds for transfer of case from Ghaziabad to Delhi after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed it.
The Talwars had sought the transfer of the case from a Ghaziabad court to a Delhi court after Aarushi’s father Rajesh was attacked outside the Ghaziabad court in January 2011.
Pleading to shift the trial to Delhi, the couple had submitted it has been a traumatic experience for them to go to Ghaziabad to face the trial and that they also face security threat there.
They had submitted it would be better to hold the trial in the national capital as it would not only be convenient for them but also for the witnesses and the CBI.
The CBI had, however, opposed the plea, saying there has been an attempt by the couple to delay the trial and has assured the court that proper security arrangement would be made for them in Ghaziabad.
It had said there were some hidden motives behind the filing of the plea and that the petition for transfer of the trial of the case might have been filed as Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code (relating to anticipatory bail) is not applicable in Uttar Pradesh.
On January 6, the court had cleared the decks for the couple’s trial in the murder case by dismissing their plea to quash criminal proceedings against them.
The bench had refused to interfere with the lower court’s order, saying there was nothing wrong in the magistrate s order of taking cognisance of the chargesheet summoning them.
Aarushi-Hemnraj double murder case timeline:
May 16, 2008: Aarushi found dead at home; domestic help Hemraj goes missing.
May 17, 2008: Hemraj’s body is found on the terrace of Talwar’s house.
May 18, 2008: Police suspect insider job; say murders with surgical precision.
May 19, 2008: Talwar’s former Nepalese help Vishnu Sharma named a suspect.
May 21, 2008: Delhi Police join probe; say murder by a ‘butcher doctor’.
May 22, 2008: Family under suspicion; honour killing angle probed.
May 23, 2008: Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar arrested for both murders.
June 13, 2008: Talwars’ Nepalese compounder Krishna is arrested by the CBI.
June 14, 2008: Talwar’s friend Duranis’ domestic help Rajkumar undergoes polygraph test.
June 2008: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar undergo lie detection tests.
June 27, 2008: Rajkumar is arrested on the suspicion of involvement in murders.
July 11, 2008: Talwar neighbour’s domestic help Vijay Mandal is arrested.
September 4, 2009: Hyderabad lab claims submitted vaginal samples not Aarushi’s.
September 14, 2009: Delhi Police find Aarushi’s mobile phone in Bulandshahr.
December 2010: CBI files closure report; names Rajesh Talwar as sole suspect.
February 9, 2011: Special CBI court summons Rajesh and Nupur Talwar as accused.
February 21, 2011: Talwars move Allahabad High Court challenging the CBI court summons.
January 6, 2012: Supreme Court rejects Talwars’ plea to squash proceedings in Ghaziabad court.
January 9, 2012: Supreme Court directs Rajesh Talwar will remain on bail till February 4.
February 27, 2012: Supreme Court reserves order after heated exchange between lawyers and CBI.
March 2, 2012: Supreme Court rejects Talwar’s petition to shift case from G’bad to a Delhi court.
—Agencies