Talwar Verdict: CBI Guilty?

Nupur and Rajesh Talwar return to freedom—and an uncertain after life

- Avirook Sent

ON Monday, at the Ghaziabad District Court, I did my best to keep up with Kapil, an assistant to Manish Sisodia, one of the lawyers who defended Dr Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the special CBI court there. He was carrying two copies of the same judgment, about 550 pages all told. A passerby said: ‘Bada bhari file le jaa rahey ho bhai.’ Another said: ‘Badi jaldi mein ho, hai kya? ’

Kapil had been doing this run—from chamber to court to chamber—for about an hour. Each second he saved would be a second less in Dasna jail for the Talwars. But this was Ghaziabad and it set its own rules, its own pace. The ‘certified copy’ of the judgment had to reach the appropriate CBI court, where a clerk would certify that it was indeed certified. It would then be taken to the computer section (where the judgment was available online anyway) for re-verification. Once this was done, it would come back to the court, for a clerk to flag and mark the relevant portions for the judge. Once the judge had verified that all verifications were in order, he would sign a release order.

But judge Tiwari, whom this matter was meant to go before, was on leave on Monday. There was an added problem, which the court clerks hemmed and hawed about— there was a lawyers’ strike. Ghaziabad was at work. I shook my head. This was déjà vu.

On the first day of the Talwars’ trial five years ago, my notebook ready, I heard a brief announcement that ended any hopes of filing a court copy: ‘Condolence ho gaya.’ A member of the Ghaziabad bar had died an untimely death. The court was closed for the day.