Aarushi murder: CBI’s haste to shut case questioned (Roundup)

GHAZIABAD/NEW DELHI - A special CBI court Monday deferred till Jan 7 the hearing on a closure report filed by the probe agency in the Aarushi Talwar murder case. The court also rejected a protest plea filed by the slain teenager’s parents and questioned the agency on its haste to shut the case.

When the hearing over the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) closure report started at 11.20 a.m., Special CBI Court Magistrate Preeti Singh asked the probe agency’s lawyer what was the reason to file the closure report in haste.

CBI lawyer R.S. Saini, in his reply, said that they have to file closure reports on cases by Dec 31, which is a routine affair.

Saini said: “It is a routine affair in the agency. The investigating officer would submit all the annexures later.”

The court deferred the hearing till Jan 7 and instructed the agency’s investigative officer to be present in the court with all the documents, including the case diary and annexures, in the next hearing.

The court also rejected a protest petition filed by Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar against the closure report.

“It is too early to move a plea against closure report,” the court said.

In his application, Talwar submitted that he was the “unfortunate parent of Aarushi”.

He said that it was a “heinous” crime and “in the interest of justice”, the CBI should not be allowed to close the case.

Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, the parents of Aarushi, were present in the court. They had come to seek a copy of the CBI closure report after the agency named Rajesh Talwar as the lone suspect in the murder of Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj.

Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in her parents’ Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida, Delhi’s suburban town in Uttar Pradesh, May 16, 2008. Hemraj’s body was found on the flat’s terrace a day later.

The Talwars said that they were ready to struggle for justice for their daughter.

“We want justice for our child and we will not let it (case) go so easily,” Rajesh Talwar, told reporters outside the Ghaziabad court.

The CBI Wednesday moved the court seeking permission to close the Aarushi murder as an unsolved case on grounds of lack of conclusive evidence.