The Central Bureau of Investigation assured the Supreme Court on Friday that Nupur Talwar, facing a non-bailable warrant (NBW) in the 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, would not be arrested in view of the pendency of her anticipatory bail petition.
Additional Solicitor-General Harin Raval gave the assurance to a Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and J.S. Khehar, which heard the petition and a special leave petition against the Allahabad High Court's judgment rejecting relief to her.
When Mr. Raval complained that mention was made on Thursday without a proper petition being filed, Justice Patnaik said: “We also thought that the matter is related to the review petition [which has been listed for hearing on April 27]. After going through the papers we came to know [that] it is a different SLP. We will request the Chief Justice for posting it before an appropriate Bench, but till then she [Nupur Talwar] must be protected.”
Mr. Raval said: “We [the CBI] knew where she was and was aware of her movements. Had we wanted, we could have arrested her. But since the matter is pending here, we will not take any coercive action.”
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To this, Justice Patnaik said: “We have total faith in you.”
The Bench then requested the Chief Justice of India to post the special leave petition and the anticipatory bail plea before an appropriate Bench.
While issuing the warrant on Wednesday, the CBI court in Ghaziabad fixed April 18 as the next date of hearing. It also ordered her arrest and that she be produced on that date.
Hemraj was the domestic help of Nupur and Rajesh Talwar, both dentists.
'False implication'
In her application, Nupur said she was falsely implicated in the case. The CBI had carried out several tests to find out whether she was involved in the alleged crime, and nothing came out, even remotely connecting her to the deaths.
Neither the Uttar Pradesh Police nor the CBI had ever considered her an accused at any stage of the investigation, and it was only the magistrate who considered her an accused and issued the summons/warrants for her appearance.
She argued that there was no further investigation required, as the CBI had filed its closure report. She was not a fugitive either. If she was arrested, it would cause her and the entire family a great ignominy, humiliation and disgrace.
The Supreme Court, she said, had issued notice on the petition seeking a review of the order, and the matter was listed for hearing on April 27. She prayed that the magistrate's order be quashed and she be granted anticipatory bail, in the event of her arrest.