Nupur Talwar jailed, bail hearing resumes Tuesday

Ghaziabad, April 30 (IANS) Murdered teenager Aarushi's dentist mother Nupur Talwar was Monday sent to jail by a special CBI court that will resume hearing her bail plea Tuesday. She was lodged at the Dasna Jail, where she will spend the night along with 59 other women prisoners in barrack no. 13.

After hearing her interim bail plea for 20 minutes, special CBI judge S. Lal sentenced her to a day's judicial custody.

Nupur Talwar is co-accused along with her husband Rajesh Talwar in the 2008 murder of her daughter Aarushi and the family's domestic help Hemraj. Lal's was the third court she appeared in on Monday. She first surrendered before special CBI magistrate Preeti Singh, who rejected her bail plea. The case was then transferred to a sessions court and then to Lal.

Clad in a green and white salwar kurta, her hair held together with a clutch clip, a grim-looking Nupur Talwar, accompanied by her husband, arrived in a white sedan at the court. She was taken into Preeti Singh's court around 11.30 a.m. through a back door to avoid the milling crowd of mainly reporters and TV crews.

The hearing lasted only 15 minutes but Preeti Singh ruled Nupur Talwar would stay in her court till sessions judge Bharat Bhushan took up the hearing. This happened at 2 p.m. and within two minutes the judge ruled that Lal would hear the matter.

It was only when Lal took up the matter at 3 p.m. that reporters were permitted in. After the judge adjourned the hearing, Nupur Talwar was taken to the Dasna Jail in a dark blue Tata Sumo.

Arguing in Lal's court, Nupur Talwar's counsel cited two instances under which the bail could be granted. The first was a 2007 judgement of the Allahabad High Court saying that when it was a question of personal liberty involved, regular bail or interim bail should be granted.

The second was the closure report in the Aarushi case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before Preeti Singh. This report said that various forensic tests conducted on Nupur Talwar and her dentist husband Rajesh Talwar, who is on bail, had concluded they were not culprits in the case.

"The CBI could not submit a single clue against Nupur Talwar or Rajesh Talwar. When the CBI submitted its closure report it sought the release of Rajesh Talwar on regular bail. On the directions of the Supreme Court, Preeti Singh granted him bail," the counsel contended. Preeti Singh had, however, refused to accept the closure report and said the case would continue.

Noting that Nupur Talwar had two houses in Noida and Delhi, as also two clinics, and was complying with the conditions imposed on Rajesh Talwar while granting him bail, the counsel said there was no apprehension of her fleeing and she should thus be granted bail. He also said that she had submitted her passport to the court.

Opposing Nupur Talwar's plea, CBI counsel R.K. Saini submitted there was no provision for granting her interim bail.

Nupur Talwar was taken into custody Monday morning, shortly after surrendering before the CBI special magistrate. She immediately applied for bail but the CBI opposed the plea.

Nupur Talwar surrendered after Preeti Singh issued a non-bailable warrant. This was after she failed to appear in court as directed.

The CBI argued before Preeti Singh that being a woman was not a ground for bail. CBI lawyer Saini also said that Nupur Talwar had been avoiding orders to appear in court and that it was a heinous case of double murder that she was involved in.

Police guarded the court premises as Nupur Talwar and her husband Rajesh reached around 10.15 a.m. She was taken into the court through a back door.

On Friday, the Supreme Court had directed Nupur Talwar to surrender before the magistrate's court. An apex court bench, headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik, had said she could apply for bail after surrendering and the court would decide on the issue expeditiously and on merit.

The apex court had passed the order while adjourning till Friday the hearing of her Nupur Talwar review petition of its order directing her to face trial in the double murder case.

The dentist couple's 14-year-old daughter Aarushi was found dead inside their Noida residence in May 2008 with her throat slit. The body of the Talwars' domestic servant Hemraj, initially a suspect in the case, was recovered from the terrace a day later.