New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its reply on the plea by Rajesh and Nupur Talwar seeking the transfer of the trial in their daughter Aarushi's 2008 murder from a special CBI court in Ghaziabad to New Delhi.
A bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar asked the CBI to file its reply by Thursday on the Talwars' plea contending that most of the witnesses in the case resided in the capital and also that they faced threats in Ghaziabad.
Justice Chauhan asked Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal what his substantive objection to the plea was. The court's question came as Rawal sought time to file reply.
Rawal contended that the real purpose of Talwars seeking the transfer of trial from Ghaziabad to Delhi is that Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code providing for anticipatory bail in a criminal case was not applicable in Uttar Pradesh.
He also told the court that the state police chief had assured full security to the Talwars. He Rawal also said that except for a few, most of the witnesses stayed in Ghaziabad.
The court directed the listing of the matter Feb 27. The court also allowed the state of Uttar Pradesh - where Ghaziabad is located - to file its reply to the transfer plea.
Aarushi, a Class 8 student of Delhi Public School, was found with her throat slit in her bedroom at her parents' Noida apartment May 16, 2008. The family's domestic help Hemraj, whom police initially thought to be the prime suspect, was also found killed on the apartment's terrace a day later.
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