House wasn’t locked from outside: Talwar’s ex-help to court

In her testimony in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Shyam Lal,Bharti said she arrived at the house at 6 am on May 16,2008. “I rang the doorbell which is outside the main grill door. Nobody answered. I tried to push the door open but it was shut. It was only after I rang the bell for the third time that Aunty (Nupur Talwar) came to the wooden door,which is some feet away,and spoke to me through that. She told me that Hemraj must have gone to fetch milk and locked the door from outside. I asked if she had the keys,and she said she would throw them down from a balcony. When I stood below the balcony,she said the door must be open and just latched. I asked her to throw down the keys anyway so that I would not have to climb down again (if it was locked). But when I went back to the main grill door,it opened without any key. I then opened the latch to the second grill door which is adjacent to the wooden door and went inside.”

According to the house map submitted by the CBI,the second grill door next to the wooden one could be accessed from inside the house through Hemraj’s room.

Bharti also told the court that within a timeframe of five minutes,Nupur had changed her stance from “Hemraj must have gone to get milk” to “Hemraj has murdered our daughter and escaped”. The body of Hemraj was found a day later,on May 17,on the terrace of the Talwars’ Noida home.

Bharti told the court that when she went inside the house,the Talwars were crying. “I thought that robbers must have come into the house because they were crying. When I asked Aunty why she was crying,she held me,started crying and said ‘Come inside and see what has happened’. She took me to Aarushi’s room. I stood outside. She removed the bedsheet covering Aarushi,and showed me that her throat was slit. I got scared. Aunty again said ‘Look what Hemraj has done’.”

The court has scheduled Bharti’s cross-examination for Tuesday.