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India Aarushi Murder Couple To Be Sentenced
BBC NEWS, INDIA
November 26, 2013: An Indian couple found guilty of murdering their daughter, Aarushi Talwar, and their Nepalese servant, Hemraj Banjade, are to be sentenced. Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were found guilty on Monday of murder, destroying evidence and misleading investigators.
Their 14-year-old only daughter was found murdered at their home in May 2008. Suspicion initially fell on Hemraj until his bludgeoned body was found on the Talwars' roof just one day later.
The murders generated huge interest in India, with every twist and turn in the case receiving wall-to-wall coverage.
Sentencing is to take place on Tuesday and the couple - both dentists - could face a life sentence or even the death penalty. Their lawyers say they will appeal.
Reports say Judge Shyam Lal based his verdict on circumstantial evidence as key forensic evidence had been lost during two flawed investigations.
"Parents are the best protectors of their own children. That is the order of human nature but there have been freaks in the history of mankind where the father and mother become the killer of their own progeny," Mr Lal said in his judgment.
Aarushi was found with her throat slit and a fatal head injury in her own bedroom, next door to her parents' room at their home in the affluent Delhi suburb of Noida.
Prosecutors alleged that the Talwars killed their daughter in a rage when they found her in a compromising situation with Hemraj. They also argued that Aarushi's throat was slit in a manner indicating someone with medical skills, and that the two victims were hit by a golf stick that was initially hidden by the Talwars. The prosecutors said the crime scene had also been dressed to mislead investigators.
In the early days of the police investigation, Aarushi was described as a girl of "loose moral character" who chatted with boys and went for "sleepovers" at friends' homes. Such statements prompted an outcry from women's and child rights groups.
Some experts say the case highlighted a "clash of cultures" within India, pitting police and conservative sectors of society against what they saw as the "excesses of the upper middle class". Nevertheless, the case enthralled India, receiving almost unprecedented levels of media scrutiny.
