Aarushi trial: Talwars' plea for journo, CBI witnesses dismissed by court

Ghaziabad: The Talwars’ plea to call a senior journalist and CBI officer as witnesses was today dismissed by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad. Final arguments by the defence will begin tomorrow.

Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar are on trial for the  murders of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.

Calling the latest  plea by the Talwars a “delay tactic”, the court observed that the defence had earlier said that they would begin final arguments on October 21.

Talwars had yesterday filed a petition urging the court to call senior journalist Nalini Singh and CBI officer Anuj Arya as witnesses on the basis of revelations made by Singh on a TV news channel on October 14.

Speaking on the TV show, Singh had said that Arya had sought details from her about programmes that were telecast on the Nepali TV channel she runs from the night of May 15-16, 2008 (the night the crime was committed).

According to Singh, Arya on being given the information had told her that it matched with the admission made by Hemraj’s friends in their narco analysis tests. The admission being that they (Krishna, Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar) were watching Nepali songs in Hemraj’s room that night. (Read full report here )

“Anuj Arya told me that this corroborates what our inquiry is leading to that there were seven people in the house that night….But the case now hinges on four people being in the house,” Singh said on the TV show.

In dismissing the Talwars’ petition, the court relied on a 2010 Supreme Court judgment that results narco anlaysis were not admissible as evidence in court.

Quoting the apex court judgement, the order noted that “Even when the subject has given consent to undergo any of these tests, the test results themselves cannot be admitted as evidence because the subject does not exercise conscious control over responses during the administration of the tests.”

The defence had argued that while the Supreme Court earlier this month had dismissed their plea for a copy of narco analysis, it had observed that discoveries made on the basis of narco analysis tests were admissible. And that therefore Nalini Singh’s corroboration that the Nepali TV channel was playing Nepali songs that night was relevant.

The defence also pointed out that it was on the basis of narco analysis results of Krishna, Rajesh’s compounder who was initially suspected of committing the crime, that the CBI had recovered a khukhri from his room. (Krishna, along with Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar, were let off by the CBI for lack of evidence)

Opposing the defence’s petition, the CBI accused the defence of “manufacturing evidence” and “wasting the court’s time.”

With their plea now dismissed, the defence will begin its final arguments tomorrow.