Ghaziabad: Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, acquitted last week of the charges of murdering their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, walked free from Dasna prison in Ghaziabad on Monday.

The two, carrying three bags, were escorted by a posse of policemen as they emerged out of jail, and stood for a while as the waiting photographers clicked them.

They were in jail for the last four years after a CBI Special Court held them guilty of murdering their daughter and destroying the evidence.

Some sources said the Talwars were expected to visit a Gurdwara on their way home.

Talwars’ advocate Tanveer Ahmad Mir expressed satisfaction that they were able to overturn the guilty verdict and get a clean chit for the two.

“My clients were sold over and over again and it was a Herculean task for us to fight not only against the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] but against a very strong public perception (of guilt),” he told NDTV.

“They have been honourably exonerated. We have also been able to restore honour and dignity to the family, the slain girl and the domestic help.

“It is my humble request to everybody in the media that what was snatched from my clients, please restore that dignity to them. Please let them live in peace,” he added.

Meanwhile, their lawyer Satyaketu Singh said he had filed a contempt petition against the trial court judge as he was biased against the defendants.

Singh, who contested Talwars’ case in the Ghaziabad CBI court, said the judge had rejected all their pleas to look into various crucial evidences submitted on behalf of the accused couple, to deliver his “prejudiced judgement” before his retirement.

“Therefore, I served a contempt notice on him after he pronounced the judgement,” the lawyer said.

“I had even advised the Talwars to file a transfer application before the High Court (given the bias of the judge), but their Delhi-based lawyers had opposed the idea and apprehended that this would draw the wrath of the judge,” added Singh.

“Then I served a contempt notice on trial judge Shyam Lal Yadav after pronouncement of judgement, whom he refused to accept the notice, so it returned undelivered,” he said.

The contempt notice — served on November 29, 2013 — stated that “when I studied the judgement, I found that the arguments and evidences submitted by me during the trial were ignored to deliver the prejudiced and illegal judgement … so this act of yours comes under the category of contempt of court”.

Singh said he had reconstructed the act of hitting by golf stick inside the court — a charge against the Talwars — that showed that it was not possible to hit with a golf stick inside the room.

“I further argued that the nature of injury on Aarushi’s head was not similar to that of a golf stick-created injury. I further raised questions on [the charge of] carrying Hemraj’s body to the rooftop and reconstructed the scene, but it could not be possible during reconstruction. But you deliberately ignored [all],” the petition read.

“I further submitted the ruling of the High Court that related to four cases, but you ignored with prejudiced notion. You ignored all my arguments which the High Court has considered as ‘substantial evidence’ to make them free from guilt. So, these acts of yours not only ignorants (sic) but prejudiced hence comes under corrupt practice.

“So, before proceeding for a criminal proceeding against you, I, through this notice, give a week’s time to tender public apology and regret the act sincerely,” the contempt petition stated.