Aarushi-Hemraj case: Talwars drop another defence witness

Rajesh and Nupur Talwar today dropped a second defence witness in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.

Masuma Jha, a resident of Sector 29 in Noida, would not be able to appear in court as her husband was in hospital; hence she was being withdrawn as a witness, the Talwars said in their 'oral' application.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Shyam Lal subsequently dropped Jha as a defence witness.

'Jha's husband is in hospital for a few days, so she cannot depose before the trial court.

'We today asked court to drop her as a defence witness... the court accepted our request,' said Manoj Sisodia, a counsel for the Talwars.

Pursuant to a July 19 Allahabad High Court order, CBI today produced before the trial court copies of a sound simulation test and a worksheet of DNA analysis of certain exhibits belonging to domestic help Hemraj and to their compounder, Krishna.

A copy of these reports was also provided to the Talwars, who are standing trial for the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj on the intervening night of May 15-16, 2008.

CBI also produced a tabular chart of analysis of the above exhibits before the special CBI court.

The Talwars had moved high court to have these reports be put on court record.

The court today fixed July 30 as next date of hearing in the case.

On July 30, statements from the nodal officers of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone would be recorded after Talwars named them as defence witnesses.

The Talwars had on July 16 dropped another defence witness, carpenter Mahender Sharma, saying he doesn't want to depose in the case due to 'pressure from CBI'.