Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: Allahabad High Court Verdict on Conviction of Parents Today

Agencies
October 12, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 12: Five years after 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj were found murdered, Special CBI Judge S Lal held Aarushi’s parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar guilty of murder and conspiracy. Nine years since the 2008 double murder that shook the nation, the Allahabad High Court is likely to pronounce its judgment on the conviction of the Talwars on Thursday.

Judge S Lal’s order failed to bring a closure to the case and public opinion remains divided, even after five years of the conviction. Now, it is to be seen whether the High Court is able to answer the questions that shroud the most mysterious murder case that India has seen in recent times.

The dentist couple had then appealed against the CBI Court order at the Allahabad High Court.

In his 210 page order, Judge Shyam Lal relied on circumstantial evidence to hold the Talwars guilty. The most controversial part of his order was putting the onus on the Talwars of proving their innocence. The Indian legal system holds an accused innocent until proven guilty, however, the judge relied on Section 114 and 106 of the Evidence Act to hold the Talwars guilty unless they can prove their innocence.

Section 114 of the Evidence Act:

Court may presume existence of certain facts: The court may presume the existence of any fact which it thinks is likely to have happened, regard being had to the common course of natural events, human conduct and public and private business, in their relation to the facts of the particular case.

Section 106 Indian Evidence Act:

Burden of proving fact especially within knowledge: When any fact is especially within the knowledge of any person, the burden of proving that fact is upon him.

Using these two sections and relying on 26 circumstances, Judge Lal said that there were four people at L-32, Jalvayu Vihar, Noida Sector 25, on the intervening night of May 15-16, 2008. Two of them were dead. Evidence proves that there was no forceful entry. So the onus is on the Talwar couple to prove that they are not guilty of the murders.

“From the evidence as tendered by the prosecution in the form of oral and documentary evidence, this court reaches the irresistible and impeccable conclusion that only the accused persons are responsible for committing this ghastly crime,” Judge Lal had said pronouncing the Talwars guilty.

Denying the benefit of doubt to the Talwars in the absence of direct and forensic evidence, Judge Lal said, “Proof does not mean proof to rigid mathematical demonstration, because that is impossible; it must mean such evidence as would induce a reasonable man to come to a particular conclusion.” Lal was quoting Lord Fletcher Moulton.

He went on to say, “Law gives absolute discretion to the court to presume the existence of any fact which it thinks likely to have happened. Presumption is an inference of a certain fact drawn from other proved facts.”

Many have questioned this interpretation of the law by the CBI Judge and still there are several unanswered regarding the motive, murder weapon and chain of criminal conspiracy.

Judge Lal cited the pillow cover recovered from Aarushi’s room, with Hemraj’s DNA, as evidence to support the prosecution theory on the murder motive. It suggested that Rajesh Talwar had seen Hemraj and Aarushi together in her room and in a fit of rage hit Aarushi, killing her accidentally and then killing Hemraj in cold blood.

There is no clear evidence to support the above theory but Judge Lal supported the prosecution and said, “It has been held that where a credible evidence exists on record to establish guilt of the accused, it is not necessary to look for a motive. The absence of a motive would not in any manner destabilize the prosecution case, or hamper a conviction.”

“Proof of motive in a case based on circumstantial evidence is of no consequence when evidence is strong and circumstances speak loudly, boldly and clearly,” Judge Lal had said.

Regarding the murder weapon, the prosecution alleged that a golf club belonging to Rajesh Talwar was used for the murder. This was handed over to CBI days after the murder and the investigating agency alleged that this was cleaned up to remove all possible evidence. Judge Lal dealt with the question of the golf club extensively and accepted the prosecution theory, even though the defense lawyers raised questions on the veracity of the CBI claim.

Most importantly, Judge S Lal cited 26 circumstances that proved beyond reasonable doubt that Dr Rajesha and Nupur Talwar not only murdered Aarushi and Hemraj, but also conspired to destroy evidence.

Judge Lal’s observations included the couple’s failure in explaining how anyone could have entered Aarushi’s room when the door was locked from outside and the keys were with the Talwars.

The dressing up of the crime scene, the ‘no outsider’ theory, have all been held against the Talwars by the CBI court. But this is a case where the CBI filed a closure report despite a lack of foolproof evidence.

Thursday’s ruling will see if the Allahabad High Court finds Judge Lal’s reasoning substantial.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,123 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 15,83,792, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total cases include 5,28,242 active cases and 10,20,582 cured/discharged cases, the Health Ministry added.

A total of 775 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 34,968.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it reported 9,211 new COVID-19 cases 298 deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases is now at 4,00,651 including 2,39,755 recovered cases, 1,46,129 active cases and 14,463 deaths.

The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu reached 2,34,114.

Delhi reported 1,035 COVID-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 29 is 1,81,90,382 including 4,46,642 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Chandigarh, Aug 1: The death toll in the Punjab spurious liquor tragedy rose to 86 on Saturday even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh suspended seven excise officials and six policemen, officials said.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each of the families of the deceased, they said.

Tarn Taran alone accounted for 63 deaths, followed by 12 in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur’s Batala. Till Friday night, the state had reported 39 deaths in the tragedy unfolding since Wednesday night.

According to an official statement, the CM ordered the suspension of seven excise officials, along with six policemen.

Among the suspended officials are two deputy superintendents of police and four station house officers.

Strict action will be taken against any public servant or others found complicit in the case, said the chief minister, describing the police and excise department failure to check the manufacturing and sale of spurious liquor as shameful.

Nobody will be allowed to get away with feeding poison to our people, he added.

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