Ghaziabad:
After spending almost five months in prison,
Nupur Talwar, who is accused along with her husband of murdering their teen daughter Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj, has been released from Ghaziabad's Dasna jail. A local court issued an order for her release earlier today. Her husband, Rajesh Talwar, is already out on bail.
Soon after her release, Mrs Talwar said she was relieved and "will abide by the law." She also said, "I will open a dental clinic in Dasna and will provide legal help to those inmates who need it."
"We are looking at this as a relief not victory. We had worked real hard these past five months... The CBI tried to propagate lies, tried to make sure that we don't have the financial capability to continue fighting the case. There were several instances where even the closure report got it wrong. Scientific tests are not attached to the closure report... They are only propagating stuff which goes against the family," said Dinesh Talwar, Mrs Talwar's brother-in-law.
Mrs Talwar had spent the morning at the court, where some witnesses were examined in her presence. Her parents then furnished two sureties worth Rs 2 lakh each and Mrs Talwar signed a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh to facilitate her release on bail. She was taken back to Dasna jail from where she was released.
Mrs Talwar was granted bail on September 17 by the Supreme Court, which had also ordered then that she be released only today, giving the CBI time to trace and question some "star witnesses."
The Central Bureau of Investigation had opposed bail for Mrs Talwar saying it feared that she would attempt to tamper with evidence and influence witnesses. Mrs Talwar was arrested on April 30 this year after a warrant was issued against her by a special CBI court for ignoring summons. Within days of her arrest she moved the Supreme Court for bail.
Aarushi, who was 13, was found dead in her bedroom in the Talwars' Noida apartment in May 2008. Because the family's domestic help Hemraj was missing, he was the main suspect initially. But hours later, Hemraj was found dead on the Talwars' terrace.
Rajesh Talwar was arrested a week after the murder but was released later by the CBI after three months in jail because the agency said it had not found any evidence against him. He has been out on bail since July 2008. The double murder has become one of India's most-discussed unsolved mysteries.
In December last year, the CBI asked a Ghaziabad court for permission to close the case because of lack of evidence, and listed Aarushi's father Rajesh as its main suspect. The court ordered the CBI to continue its investigation and made Mrs Talwar, a dentist like her husband, a co-accused in the double murder.
The dentist couple says that the CBI is pinning the double-murder on them because it has not been able to find the real killer.
The evidence against the Talwars is circumstantial. The CBI believes that a golf club recovered from their home in Noida matches the injuries found on the victims. The fact that the house was not broken into on the night of the murders suggests that the couple is responsible, the agency has said in court.
Aarushi's parents had appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss their trial, ordered by the CBI court in Ghaziabad. The Supreme Court rejected their plea in June this year.
In an unrelated incident some days ago, a witness in the Aarushi case, Jagbir Singh Malik, who was the first investigating officer in the case, died in a truck accident. The CBI says that has not affected its case.