Relieved, we went through trying times: Talwar family

The nine-year trial in the murder of their daughter Aarushi had left the Talwar couple emotionally drained, Nupur Talwar's father said today, thanking the judiciary for acquitting them.

B G Chitnis, a former group captain in the Indian Air Force, said it was very trying for him to see his daughter, Nupur and her husband Rajesh behind bars.

The Talwar couple

"I am grateful to the judiciary for the verdict. They (the Talwar couple) have really suffered. They are emotionally drained. At my age it was very trying to see my daughter behind bars," he told reporters here.

Vandana Talwar, Aarushi's aunt, said the entire family had suffered for nearly a decade as the case dragged on.

"It was very exhausting and trying...," she said. She refused to go into the merits of the case and the judgement, saying the couple's lawyers would answer questions on who killed Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj.

"We are deeply grateful to the judiciary and relieved over the verdict. I would like to thank all the supporters who supported us through the long ordeal," she said.

The Allahabad High Court today acquitted the Talwar couple, saying they could not be held guilty on the basis of the evidence on record. The verdict ends the ordeal of the parents who were found guilty by a CBI court in the sensational double murder case.

A division bench of the court comprising justices B K Narayana and A K Mishra upheld the appeals by the Talwars against the Ghaziabad CBI court order sentencing them to life imprisonment on November 26, 2013.

Aarushi was found dead inside her room in the Talwars' Noida residence with her throat slit in May 2008. The needle of suspicion had initially moved towards 45-year-old Hemraj, who had gone missing but his body was recovered from the terrace of the house a day later.