An Indian court has convicted a prosperous couple of murdering their teenage daughter and a Nepali servant in a case that has gripped the country for more than five years.
Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, both dentists, were convicted of killing Aarushi (14) and Hemraj Banjade, their 45-year-old Nepali employee supposedly with a golf club and a dental scalpel at their home in an affluent New Delhi suburb in May 2008.
The couple, who burst into tears when judge Shyam Lal read out the terse verdict in a crowded court room, face life in prison and possibly the death penalty when their sentence is pronounced today.
'Hurt and anguished'
"We are deeply disappointed, hurt and anguished for being convicted for a crime that we have not committed," the Talwars said in a written statement after the verdict.
"We refuse to feel defeated and will continue to fight for justice," they added declaring their intention to appeal to a higher court.
Circumstantial evidence
Legal experts said that this was probably the first instance of a murder verdict in India being based exclusively on circumstantial evidence.
They said the prosecution had conceded the absence of any forensic or material evidence against the couple, tenuously basing its arguments on the “last-seen theory”. This holds that the accused were the last to see the victims.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiring into the case claimed that Aarushi was killed in a fit of rage after her parents found her and their servant Hemraj in an “objectionable” or compromising situation.
The Talwars insisted they were victims of police incompetence and a trial by media as the sensational murder spawned a nation of armchair detectives who debated every nuance, polarising public opinion.
Immediately after the Talwars discovered their daughter’s mutilated body in their flat on May 16th, 2008, the local police named Hemraj as the prime suspect as he was missing. But they were stumped and more than a little red-faced after a neighbour discovered his blood-splattered remains with multiple stab wounds on the roof of the murdered girl’s apartment building a day later.
The girl's father was arrested. The police asserted that he had killed his daughter in a fit of rage because he objected to her "closeness" with Hemraj. They called it an "honour killing".
Unaware of butchery
Police also claimed Aarushi was killed much later while her mother slept in an adjoining room, unaware of the butchery taking place in the adjoining room. A few weeks later the CBI took charge of the investigation and injected Talwar with sodium pentothal or "truth serum" but came up with nothing.
The police arrested the Talwars’ dental assistant along with the girl’s mother, Nupur, and subjected both to a series of scientific tests, but to no avail.
By December 2010 the CBI was poised to close the case, but media and social pressure led to it charging the parents with their daughter’s murder in April 2011.
“It is clearly a knock and a devastating blow for all of us,” said defence lawyer Rebecca John yesterday. “We will challenge the verdict. I have complete faith in the innocence of my clients.”