Court yet to decide on report

A CBI court on Monday registered the agency’s closure report in the Aarushi Talwar- Hemraj Banjade double murder case as a court document. Peeyush Khandelwal reports.

A CBI court on Monday registered the agency’s closure report in the Aarushi Talwar- Hemraj Banjade double murder case as a court document. A decision in the matter, however, will have to wait.

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The court summoned officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the two murders that happened in May 2008. Special judicial magistrate (SJM) Priti Singh and also issued notice to Aarushi’s father Dr Rajesh Talwar to be present for a hearing on January 7.

The court also rejected Talwars’ application for an intervention in the hearing on closure report. The Talwars, through their counsel, had also requested the court to disallow the closure of the case. The court, calling Talwars’ intervention ‘premature’, rejected the application.

The CBI, which was roped in to investigate the murders after the local police failed, had filed their closure report citing “insufficient evidence” to investigate further.

In their 31-page report, the agency has called the accused Raj Kumar Sharma, Krishna Thadari and Vijay Mandal “innocent”.

Also, although the CBI pointed fingers at Dr Rajesh, the agency decided not to chargesheet him due to insufficient evidence.

Monday’s court hearing was attended by the Talwar couple Dr Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, Aarushi’s uncle Dr Dinesh Talwar, and Rajesh Talwar’s cousin Ajay Chaddha. The Talwars were accompanied by their lawyers Rebecca John, Satish Tamta and Praveen Rai.