In a major setback to dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, the Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for recording of their statement in the Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murder trial by refusing to hear their plea to summon 14 witnesses.
Asking the couple to approach the Allahabad High Court, which they had conveniently avoided, the vacation bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Dipak Misra took serious exception to the manner in which the Talwars bypassed the High Court by filing an appeal in the apex court against the trial court’s order of May 6 rejecting their request.
The 14 additional witnesses included Additional Director General Arun Kumar. Kumar had headed the probe initially as CBI Joint Director and accused the servants of Talwars for the twin murders. Subsequently, a new CBI investigation team pieced together the circumstantial evidences to hold the Talwars guilty of the double murder.
“We don’t intend to touch such matters. It’s a wrong procedure to approach the Supreme Court directly,” the bench said, throwing out the petition of Talwars. Senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, who appeared for the couple, lost no time to withdraw the appeal to try his luck before the High Court.
The trial court will now be at liberty to proceed with the recording of statements of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar following the CBI investigating officer AGl Kaul’s testimony in which he accused Rajesh Talwar of killing his 14-year old daughter and middle-aged domestic servant with a golf stick after he found them in a compromising position.