Talwars get life for killing daughter, help (Roundup)

Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were Tuesday sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a Special CBI court for killing their daughter Aarushi and domestic help in a keenly watched murder case that will now play on in the higher judiciary.

A day after holding them guilty, Special CBI Judge Shyam Lal said he was convinced that the gory murders of May 2008 at the Talwars' plush residence in Noida adjoining Delhi was committed "by the accused only".

The judge said he did not give the couple death penalty as sought by the prosecution "in view the entire facts and circumstances ... (as) the accused are not (a) menace to the orderly society.

"Therefore, it appears just and proper to sentence the accused to rigorous imprisonment for life under section 302 with section 34 of the IPC," he said in his 210-page judgment.

"The rarest of the rare case comes when a convict would be a menace and threat to the harmonious and peaceful existence of the society."

The distraught couple, who were until recently among the most sought after dentists in Delhi and Noida, were in the court when the verdict was given. They were quickly taken back to the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad district.

Talwars' lawyer Tanvir Ahmed Mir described the couple as "brave" and said they would "fight for the honour of their daughter till the last drop of their blood". They would approach the higher court.

The Talwars were convicted Monday of killing their 14-year-old daughter and 45-year-old domestic help Hemraj on the night of May 15-16, 2008.

The Class 9 student was found with her throat slit and head battered at the Talwars Noida home.

Police initially suspected the then missing Hemraj for Aarushi's killing until they found his body from the terrace of the house the next day.

It marked the start of a widely publicized whodunit with twists and turns before the Central Bureau of Investigation -- brought in after the local police faced flak for a shoddy probe -- held the Talwars guilty.

CBI counsel R.K. Saini maintained that the couple - who had a thriving practice -- killed Aarushi after seeing her and Hemraj in "a compromising position".

The court said that from the evidence produced by the CBI it was proved that the couple had the knowledge of the double murder.

But to screen themselves from law, Rajesh Talwar gave false information to police that Hemraj had murdered Aarushi.

"An outsider killer after committing the crime will not waste his time in dressing-up the bed-sheet, arranging toys and pillow in proper order (on) the bedsheet, covering the dead body of Aarushi with a flannel blanket and cleaning private parts of Aarushi as his top priority will be to escape immediately after commission of the murder... thus dressing-up of the bedsheet and placing toys and pillow is possible to be done by the accused persons (Talwars) only," the judge said.

The Talwars were convicted for murder, destruction of evidence and acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention. Rajesh Talwar was also accused of misleading the probe.

The judge also sentenced the Talwars to five years in jail for destruction of evidence and Rajesh to an additional year in prison for giving false information to investigators.

The Talwars were fined Rs.10,000 each for murder and Rs.5,000 each for destruction of evidence. Rajesh Talwar was fined Rs.2,000 for misleading police.

On Monday, the judge had convicted them for the murder of their daughter, saying they were "freaks" who "became the killer of their own progeny".

On Tuesday, a relative of Hemraj, who was from Nepal, demanded death for the Talwars.

"Jeevan (Hemraj's brother-in-law) told me that his sister said the couple should be hanged," Sameer Singh, a Noida businessman in whose house Jeevan works, told IANS.

In a replay of Monday, the court complex was packed with lawyers, an army of journalists and curious onlookers.

After the judgment, a scuffle broke out between lawyers when the Hemraj family's lawyer Naresh Yadav was speaking to the media. Police finally had to separate the groups.