A designated court here on Tuesday reserved for Wednesday its order on the closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case. The agency sought closure of the case citing insufficient evidence, but submitted that circumstantial evidence raised suspicion about the role of the young girl’s parents.
Opposing the protest petition moved by Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar against the closure report, CBI counsel R. K. Saini said the findings of the investigation hinted at involvement of the parents.
However, he conceded that there were weaknesses in carrying out a successful prosecution in the case.
Dr. Rajesh Talwar, who had sustained injuries in an attack by one Utsav Sharma on the court premises on January 25, and his wife were not present in the court on Tuesday. They were represented by his brother. In the wake of the attack, security was stepped up inside the court premises.
During the three hour-long hearing, Dr. Talwar’s counsel Satish Tamta said there were several lapses in the CBI investigation. He produced before the court a pillow cover claiming that it was not seized by the agency. He said with the change of the investigating team, the CBI had changed its stance in the case. He also pointed out that while the closure report made certain observations regarding the private parts of the victim, they were not mentioned in the post-mortem report.
Mr. Tamta said there was a need to conduct low-count DNA testing, to which the CBI counsel submitted that opinions had been sought from four laboratories, one of which was based in Britain.
He said three laboratories opined that it was not possible to conduct the test as samples were highly contaminated, while the Britain-based laboratory with which the Talwar couple were in contact and it had consented to conduct the tests was not found registered there.
The Talwars’ counsel, who accused the agency of leaking contents of the closure report to the media before filing it in the court on December 29 last, urged that further investigations be carried out in the case.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, Special CBI Magistrate Preeti Singh reserved her order for Wednesday.
