By Rajnish Singh, IANS,
New Delhi : On May 16, the double murder of teenager Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj that shocked India will be four years old. But the question – whodunit – is still as much of a mystery, with the first hearing in the trial held just last week in a court in Ghaziabad.
There have been twists and turns aplenty, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accusing Aarushi’s dentist couple parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar only in February 2011, the first formal order in the case. The circumstantial evidence against them was that they were the only people present at the crime scene.
Aarushi, 14, was found with her throat slit at her home at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida on the outskirts of the capital May 16, 2008. The body of her family’s domestic help Hemraj, who was initially suspected for the crime, was found the next day on the terrace of the house.
CBI investigators, who took over from Noida police, claimed that 90 percent of the evidence had been destroyed.
Though there was a whiskey bottle in Rajesh Talwar’s room and two bottles in Hemraj’s room on the terrace, the fingerprints could not be matched.
“Apart from not capturing the finger prints on whiskey bottles in Hemraj’s room, police allowed the media to freely roam around the crime scene rather than restricting access to the flat,” a source in CBI told IANS.
In addition, police allowed doctors not specifically trained in forensic pathology to conduct the autopsies of Hemraj and Aarushi, he said.
While it is established procedure to lift fingerprints from the skin of victims, doctors entrusted with the autopsies neglected to call forensic scientists for the job, the sources said.
Experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have raised questions over one entry in Arushi’s postmortem report in which whitish discharge was mentioned from the vagina but not investigated.
“In this case no further investigation was done on the evidence that investigators got from natural orifices. The report doesn’t mention whether a vaginal swab was sent for further investigation,” Sudhir Gupta, associate professor, forensic medicine, AIIMS, told IANS.
As things stand today, Nupur Talwar is in judicial custody in Ghaziabad’s Dasna jail and fighting to get bail, while standing trial. The trial began only May 11, almost four years after the crime.
Nupur Talwar’s husband and Aarushi’s father, Rajesh Talwar, is out on bail. He was arrested and kept behind bars for 50 days before being set free in July 2008. He was then made an accused three years later.
The most dramatic turn in the case, perhaps, came when a magistrate in Ghaziabad rejected the CBI’s request to close the case and held that there were enough grounds to proceed against the teenager’s parents.
After taking up the probe June 1, 2008, and following multiple leads, the CBI filed the closure report in December 2010.
The CBI put the ball in the magistrate’s court on the issue of proceeding with the case or burying it as one which had reached a dead end.
Before the Talwars were named, police had picked up three others — Krishna, the Talwars’ medical assistant; Raj Kumar, a domestic help with a family friend of the Talwars; and Vijay Mandal, another domestic help in the neighbourhood.
However, they were let off on bail because the CBI couldn’t prove its claim due to lack of evidence.
After four years, the action now has shifted to the trial court in Ghaziabad. As the prosecution and defence fight it out before Judge S. Lal, Aarushi’s friends and family are hoping that the “real culprits” don’t go scott free.
Majid Memon, a criminal lawyer, told IANS: “As Aarushi’s body was cleaned and most of the evidences was tampered with, her parents are the accused as per the circumstantial evidence.
“First, Uttar Pradesh Police did not take proper care of the evidence and later CBI also showed lazy attitude in the case.”
Nupur Talwar’s lawyer Praveen Rai said: “We have demanded a CD and other related documents from the CBI… The court has ordered CBI to submit all the documents on May 15.”
Interestingly, the hearing in the case has been adjourned to May 16 — when it will be exactly four years to the murders.
The trial in the 2008 murder of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and her family’s domestic help Hemraj in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida began this month, almost four years after the incident. Here is a timeline on the crime and developments in courts:
May 16, 2008: Aarushi Talwar, the daughter of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar found dead with her throat slit in her bedroom of her Jalvayu Vihar flat in Noida.
May 17: Body of Hemraj, Talwars’ servant, found on the terrace of their house.
May 19: Talwars’ former domestic help Vishnu Sharma named as suspect.
May 21: Police say murder committed by ‘doctor or butcher’.
May 22: Talwar family under suspicion; honour killing angle probed.
May 23: Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar arrested for double murder.
May 31: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes over the case.
June 13: Krishna, Rajesh Talwar’s compounder, arrested by the CBI.
June 27: Raj Kumar, the servant of a doctor friend of the Talwars, arrested by the CBI.
July 11: Rajesh Talwar set free by local court after CBI fails to present evidence against him.
* Vijay Mandal, the domestic help of Talwars’ neighbour, arrested by the CBI.
Sep 4: Vijay Mandal released on bail.
Sep 12: Krishna and Raj Kumar released on bail.
September 2009: Hyderabad-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory files a report stating that most of the physical evidence taken from the crime scene and Aarushi’s vaginal sample were tampered with.
February 2010: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar undergo narco-analysis test.
Dec 29: The CBI files closure report, stating that Rajesh Talwar is the main suspect but there is not enough evidence against him.
Feb 9, 2011: A special Ghaziabad court orders that Rajesh and Nupur Talwar be tried for Aarushi’s murder. The couple also face allegations of destruction of evidence.
Feb 28: A CBI special court in Ghaziabad issues bailable warrants against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar for not being present in court.
March 14, 2012: The CBI argues in court for cancellation of bail of Rajesh Talwar.
* Court defers case till April 11, Nupur Talwar also told to present herself in court.
April 11: The CBI requests court to issue arrest warrants against Nupur Talwar as she did not appear for the hearing. Counsel for Nupur Talwar says that her review petition is pending in the Supreme Court.
April 18: The CBI special court in Ghaziabad extends the date of executing non-bailable arrest warrants against Nupur Talwar till April 30.
April 30: Nupur Talwar surrenders in CBI court, sent to judicial custody.
May 3: Sessions court rejects Nupur Talwar’s bail plea, she remains in jail.
May 14: Court orders the CBI to submit case-related documents to Nupur Talwar, puts off hearing till May 16.
(Rajnish Kumar Singh can be contacted at [email protected])