The SC has sent the case back to the trial court, which had taken a strict view of the CBI's findings on circumstantial evidence and statements of witnesses and made Talwars the accused.
In her order on February 9, 2011, CBI special judge Preeti Singh had built her decision to name the parents of Aarushi as the accused on the basis of circumstantial evidence pointed out by CBI in its case diary and statements of several witnesses who had not seen the murders being carried out but helped in building the sequence of events and prove the complicity of Talwars.
Some of the witnesses who were listed as important in her order by Singh included some friends of Talwar, domestic helps and Noida police officers. The court had made elaborate observations on several points, including a V-shaped injury mark on both bodies (Hemraj and Aarushi's), presence of only family members inside the house, cleaning of Aarushi's private parts, Talwar's reluctance to open the door of the terrace on May 16, 2008, bloodstains on the stairs and the doctor's opinion that only a surgically trained person could have killed both. The judge had cited these points as the main grounds to charge the couple for murder and destruction of evidence.
One of the most important points which the court had stressed upon were the circumstances proving that 'there were only four persons in the house that night, including Aarushi and Hemraj'. Talwar's driver, Umesh, a neighbour, Puneet Rai Tandon, Anita Durrani and servant Krishna's landlord, KN Johri, were important witnesses too in backing this fact. Umesh had said, "I had seen Rajesh Talwar, Nupur Talwar, Aarushi and Hemraj in the house around 9.30 pm on May 15 when I went there to return the car keys".
A maid working in the house, Bharti, had observed: "When I went to the house at 6 am on May 16, only Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were present. Aarushi was lying on her bed and blood was coming out from a wound on her neck while Hemraj was not there". The Talwars had accepted that they were only ones present in the house.
The court had ruled out the involvement of any outsider in the murders on the basis of statements of Sector 25 Jalvayu Vihar's colony guards - Virender Singh, Sanjay Singh, Ram Kumar, Chandrabhushan, Devender Singh and Ram Vishal - who had stated that they did not see anyone coming to or going out of Talwar's house.
The court had also ruled out the involvement of the servants on the basis of statements of Anita Durrani, who said that Rajkumar was present in her house till 12.30 on that night, while Puneet Rai Tandon said his servant, Vijay Mandal, was in his garage. K N Johri, landlord of Krishna, stated that Krishna was sleeping in his house with his family.
Observing that there was cleaning of Aarushi's private parts, the court had taken note of Dr Sunil Dohre's statement that there were no marks on Aarushi's face or body of any resistance but the vaginal opening was wide and there was a white discharge near it.
The court had also cited testimony of a telecom department official who stated that the internet was switched on and off at regular intervals and that an outsider could not have done that.
