Aarushi Talwar's classmates have broken their silence on the 2008 Noida double murder case after her parents, Nupur and Rajesh Talwar, were acquitted by the Allahabad High Court on Thursday.
It has been nine years since a couple of Aarushi's friends found themselves answering dubious questions over her character. They claim that Uttar Pradesh Police and media wrongly tossed all the messages acquired from Aarushi's mobile phone.
"The character assassination of someone who is no longer alive is not right. I think the projection of a thirteen-year-old in the media as someone who could have a physical relationship with someone as old as Hemraj was presumptuous," a friend named Sahay told the Times of India.
Defining the bond Sahay had with Aarushi as a close friend, she added, "Since I too was an only child, I connected with Aarushi. She was a reasonably popular girl in school and didn't need to do anything of the sort suggested by police."
The 23-year-old friend also posed a question to the media, "If uncle and aunty did not do it, where are the ones who were involved?"
Sahay said that the motive of the investigation so far was never to track the actual culprit, but to ascertain whether the parents have committed the crime or not.
In November 2013, Rajesh and Nupur were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, but many critics argued that the judgment was based on weak evidence. The Talwars challenged the decision in the Allahabad High Court, which acquitted them on Thursday, calling the evidence against them unsatisfactory and giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Rajesh and Nupur's lawyer Tanveer Ahmed Mir said that the court rejected the only theory of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) -- "No one from outside entered the house except the parents, so the parents fall under the radar of suspicion and hence they are the murderers."
The court clearly said that CBI's claims hold no ground and are nowhere close to facts. "The court said that the entry of another person could not be ruled out," Mir added.
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