Aarushi Talwar's friends on Wednesday reacted with support, shock, and a feeling of discontent to the special CBI court's ruling ordering Mr Rajesh and Ms Nupur Talwar's trial in their teenage daughter's murder case.
"I totally agree with the court's verdict. How can the investigative agency decide to close a case and not accuse parents who were present in the same house on the night of the murder," a classmate of Aarushi said.
"No parent can kill the child if you think of ideal conditions. But the society is not ideal anymore. There could be indirect involvement also," he added.
Aarushi, a Class 9 student of Delhi Public School, Noida, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in her parents' Jalvayu Vihar Apartment in Noida on May 16, 2008.
Their domestic help Hemraj was initially suspected for the killing, but his body was found on the flat's terrace a day later.
"There was enough circumstantial evidence for the investigating agency to rule out the possibility of the involvement of parents. Some of us had been stressing on that point in the protest march also," said another classmate on condition of anonymity.
However, some expressed their anger against the ruling and asked why the case took so long in the court of law.
"This is totally self-contradictory on the part of any prosecuting agency. First they did not have any evidence, and now they are ready to try the couple without any evidence," said Ms Namrata Verma (name changed), mother of another classmate of Aarushi who had studied with the girl for 10 years.
"They have been hounded for no reason. They are distraught and completely broke after their daughter's loss," added Verma, who knew the Talwars closely.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday ordered that Mr Rajesh and Ms Nupur Talwar be tried for the murder of their teenaged daughter Aarushi. The couple will also be prosecuted for destruction of evidence.