Parents Receive Life Sentences in Murders of Daughter and Domestic Worker NEW DELHI - Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, for the murders of their teenage daughter and a domestic worker. Life imprisonment is the minimum sentence for murder in India. Prosecutors representing the Central Bureau of Investigation had sought the maximum punishment, the death penalty, which is reserved for the "rarest of rare cases" under the Indian Penal Code. The Talwars each received five additional years in prison for destruction of evidence, and Mr. Talwar had one more year added to his sentence for misleading the police. After the Talwars were found guilty of killing Aarushi Talwar, 13, and Hemraj Banjade, 45, on Monday, the couple said in a statement that they would appeal. "We will read the full order, and then we will move Allahabad High Court as soon as possible," Rebecca John, the couple's lawyer, said outside the court Tuesday. Since the double-murder, which took place in the Talwars's Noida apartment in May 2008, the investigation and ensuing trial have offered gruesome developments that have transfixed the nation. Aarushi and Mr. Banjade were both bludgeoned with golf clubs before their throats were slit. Judge Shyam Lal, who presided over the trial, issued a strong condemnation of the couple as he read the verdict on Monday, saying, "Parents are the best protectors of their children. That is the order of human nature, but they have been freaks in the history of mankind where the father and mother became the killer of their own progeny. Yet the conviction and sentencing of the Talwars have not brought about the kind of public celebration that was seen a couple of months ago after four young men and one juvenile were found guilty of raping and murdering a young student in Delhi. The Indian press, which was warned by the Supreme Court to avoid spreading false and damaging rumors about the Talwars, has recently begun fixating on holes in the Central Bureau of Investigation's case and police blunders in the days following the murders. After she was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Talwars's maid, Bharti Mandal, made statements in court that indicated the investigators had coached her to give their version of events, one that implicated the Talwars. Ms. Mandal's testimony provided the kind of circumstantial evidence that formed the prosecution's foundational arguments, largely because police failed to secure any items from the crime scene for forensic tests or cordon off the house after the murder. The investigative agency also submitted documents to the court stating that the Talwars, both dentists, had used scalpels to cut the throats of their daughter and live-in domestic worker. However, scalpels owned by the Talwars were never seized for testing. The Central Bureau of Investigation and Noida police, on the other hand, have welcomed the verdict. Satish Ganesh, who was senior superintendent of police in Noida at the time of the murders, said, "It is a welcome decision. I am thankful to the court which has vindicated our theory.