Aarushi-Hemraj double murder: Setback to Talwars

In a setback to the Talwars in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case trail, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition of the dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar which sought to summon 14 witnesses. A bench of justices BS 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 this order, the trial court can now go ahead and record statements of the Talwar couple facing trial for allegedly murdering their teenaged daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj. The Talwars 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. 14-year-old Aarushi was murdered five years ago and the CBI alleges that her parents were behind it 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.