Court awards another 5 years for destruction of evidence
Dentist couple Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar were awarded life imprisonment on Tuesday for killing their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
49-year-old Rajesh and Nupur (48) were spared the death penalty by the court of special CBI judge Shyam lal, who rejected the CBI plea for maximum punishment.
Additional Sessions Judge Shyam lal said in the 208-page order: “Keeping in view the entire facts and circumstances, I am of the view that both the accused are not menace to the orderly society. This is not a fit case for inflicting death penalty under section 302(murder) read with section 34 IPC (common intention to commit the crime) and, therefore, it appears just and proper to sentence the accused to rigorous imprisonment for life.
The Talwar couple were also sentenced for five years for destruction of evidence, while Rajesh was awarded another one year for filing a wrong FIR with police. All the sentences pronounced by the judge, who relied heavily on the circumstantial evidence provided by the CBI, will run concurrently.
The court also imposed a fine on each and in default of payment; they will need to undergo additional imprisonments. “All the sentences shall run concurrently. The accused shall be sent to District jail under the warrant of conviction, the copy of the judgement shall be sent to the DM Ghaziabad in terms of Section 365 of IPC,” it said.
Earlier, during the argument on the quantum of sentence, CBI lawyer RK Saini sought capital punishment for Talwars by terming the murder as ‘cold blooded’. However, defence lawyer Tanvir Ahmad Mir submitted that while the court had admitted that it was an incident of sudden provocation, the case cannot come under cold blooded murder hence it is not the rarest of rare case.
Defence counsel Tanvir Mir also countered CBI’s argument for the capital punishment and said the evidence against his clients were weak and sought leniency from the court. The arguments lasted for just five minutes before the judge adjourned proceedings and pronounced the quantum of sentence at 4.30 PM.
The defence lawyer contended that it is for the first time in the history of free India the liability of probe of the crime has been fixed on accused, while usually the liability is on the prosecution agency. “So we have decided to move the Allahabad High Court against the judgment. Talwars are determined to fight for the honour of their daughter which had been blotted with the prosecution’s claim that she was having affairs with a fifty-year-old man,” added Tanvir Ahmad Mir.
Meanwhile, the distraught parents of Nupur said they will appeal against the verdict. “They are very, very innocent. Rajesh (and Nupur) are so happy couple, I have never seen in my life before... What can I say about this courtIJ I can’t say anything. I just do not want to say anything about this court and judiciary. We are just fighting for the truth and we want the truth,” Nupur’s mother lata Chitnis said.
The dentist couple were on Monday convicted of the double murders. The couple was convicted under IPC sections 302(murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common intention to commit the crime). Rajesh was also convicted separately for furnishing false information to the police regarding the murder of his daughter by Hemraj (Section 203).