It was a battle that lasted seven years. It was not just against the CBI and proving that his clients Nupur and Rajesh Talwar were innocent, but also about restoring the honour of the Talwars and their murdered daughter Aarushi, who was under scrutiny by the media and investigators.
Speaking to The Hindu, Tanveer Ahmed Mir, the defence lawyer of the Talwars, said the Talwars will walk out of Dasna jail on Monday and that he has been waiting for this day for years.
After the High Court verdict, certain media houses and the CBI have, time and again, said that the Talwars were given the “benefit of doubt” and were not proven innocent. What would you say to that?
I would just ask these people to read the court judgment. Rajesh and Nupur have been honourably exonerated by the court.
In fact, the last two paragraphs of the judgment have called out the CBI for stooping so low and fabricating evidence to frame the couple. They tampered with the case property only to book the couple and the court took notice of that.
Despite their acquittal, some factions are only trying to further an agenda. The couple has come out clean.
The Talwars will finally be free on Monday. Do you plan to meet them after?
I had promised the Talwars on November 25, 2013, when they were taken to jail, that I will overturn the judgment of the trial court and will be there at the gate of Dasna Jail to receive them when they walk out.
Tomorrow [on Monday] will be the day when I finally fulfil my promise to them. We are expecting the formalities to be over and they should be out by 4 p.m. or 5 p.m.
The case took a lot of time to reach its end. How has your relationship with the Talwars been since you first took up their case?
Between 2012 and 2013, before they were arrested, Nupur, Rajesh and I were like the three musketeers. We would be together for hours, preparing for the case. We literally lived our lives together that year. There was barely a Sunday I spent with my family that year.
I was so invested in this case that I consider their acquittal a personal victory. We have literally won this case, encouraging and supporting each other through all the negativity.
A lot was written and said about the Talwars since the murder of Aarushi and Hemraj. What made you take up such a case, especially when the entire narrative was spun against your clients?
There was a witch hunt against the Talwars by the CBI and the media. All kinds of things were said about a 14-year-old girl and a 50-year-old domestic help, who was old enough to be her grandfather. The Talwars were also portrayed in a very bad light.
But what worked for us was the never-say-die spirit of Nupur and Rajesh. From the beginning, they had strong belief in their own innocence and on the legal system of this country. That, in a way, rubbed onto us as well.
How confident were you that you could win the case for them?
I had personally gone through all the evidence and questioned all the witnesses.
I knew from the argument we put forth that there was no chance we would lose the case.
However, in the trial court, the judge was a convictionist and failed to hear our counter arguments. But I was sure that with our evidence and examination of witnesses I would be able to convince the judges at the High Court.
I stayed in Allahabad between September 2016 and January 2017. It wasn’t easy. The witnesses made a complete U-turn from their statements. In fact, tge doctors who conducted the post-mortem of Aarushi and Hemraj played to push the CBI’s theory of a sexual relationship between them.
Sunil Dohre, who examined Arushi internally and externally, had in three statements said that no abnormality was detected... My fight was to restore the dignity of a teenager and her parents. I had to win it for them.
