NEW DELHI // Two married dentists were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for killing their 14-year-old daughter and their housekeeper, resolving a five-year-old case that dominated headlines and polarised India.
Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were convicted on Monday and said they would appeal the verdict.
The defence lawyer Rebecca John said after the sentencing that the case against the Talwars, based largely on circumstantial evidence, said “there has been a serious miscarriage of justice in this case”.
The couple came under suspicion soon after their daughter, Aarushi, was found dead in her bedroom, her throat slit with surgical precision.
Police initially named the Talwars’ missing Nepali housekeeper as the suspect, until his body was found a day later on a terrace above Aarushi’s room.
Prosecutors for the Central Bureau of Investigation had asked for the death penalty.
“Such crime comes under the rarest of rare cases,” the prosecutor Naresh Yadav said. “So they should be awarded maximum punishment.”
The investigation determined both victims had been hit with a golf club and later had their throats slit.
Police offered several possible motives in prosecuting the parents, including an honour killing.
Several other suspects had been questioned by police. After the case stalled, the Talwars in 2011 demanded a fresh investigation.
* Associated Press
