By Sahil Makkar and S.P. Singh, IANS
Noida : In a sordid crime drama that had a shocked nation transfixed for a week, a dentist father was Friday arrested for brutally killing his 14-year-old daughter and his domestic help in a bid to silence them over his extramarital affair with a fellow doctor, police said.
Rajesh Talwar, who was apparently in an inebriated state, killed his daughter Aarushi because she had stumbled upon his affair and had been discussing it with her friends, police said. Talwar’s objection to his daughter’s alleged close relations with the servant Hemraj, 45, prompted him to kill them both, Gurdarshan Singh, inspector general of police, Meerut range, told a packed press conference.
Talwar’s wife Nupur and his suspected lover Anita Durrani are also dentists. The Talwars live in the upscale Jal Vayu Vihar neighbourhood of Noida.
The two women have been put under detention, but not formally arrested. Singh said Talwar first murdered Hemraj and then slit his daughter’s throat with a surgical instrument in a fit of rage.
Nupur Talwar, when being led away, denied her husband’s involvement, saying “he has been framed”.
“From the circumstantial evidence we have, Talwar was having an extramarital affair which Aarushi knew about. Hemraj also knew about it and spread the word among his friends. This angered Talwar,” Gurdarshan Singh said at the news conference that was telecast live as millions across the country followed the curious twists and turns in this macabre murder mystery.
“Hemraj also told his friends of a threat to his life. Had he informed the police, the crimes would not have taken place,” the police officer said, adding that the affluent dentist was the prime accused in the double murder that has shocked not just this suburban boomtown of the national capital but the rest of the country as well.
“Talwar was a suspect from day one when he tried to mislead the police by putting the blame of his daughter’s murder on Hemraj. His statements were always contradictory. Talwar has been arrested. The investigations are on. Every angle is being examined,” Gurdarshan Singh said.
Police have not yet recovered the weapon used in committing the crime.
Aarushi, a Class 9 student of Delhi Public School (Noida), was found dead with her throat slit and multiple stab injuries on her face, chest and neck exactly a week ago on May 16.
The teenager, the only daughter of the dentist couple, reportedly had dinner with her family the night of the murder and retired to her room in the three-bedroom apartment.
Elaborating in gory detail the sequence of events leading to the murders, Gurdarshan Singh said: “Aarushi used to discuss her father’s extramarital relations with Hemraj.”
“That (May 15) night, when her father came home, he saw the two in the bedroom sitting close – but they were not in a compromising position. He was enraged and took Hemraj to the terrace and hit him on the head with a heavy weapon and then slit his throat. He then placed the cover of the water cooler over the body.
“He then came down, locked the terrace and slit his daughter’s throat,” the officer said.
“The next morning, he only called his close friends and relatives and not the police. He also did not tell anybody to call the police, which would be the normal thing to do,” the officer added.
Admitting that the weapon used in the crime and Aarushi’s mobile phone had not yet been found, Gurdarshan Singh said: “We have solid proof.”
When asked about the Talwar’s confession, Singh told IANS that: “He has not confessed to the killings. But we have strong circumstantial evidence against him.”
He said Talwar’s wife Nupur was in her room when the killings took place. “Nupur’s role is under suspicion and we have detained her for further questioning,” Singh added.
The Uttar Pradesh Police earlier suspected Hemraj and even announced a reward for his arrest. On May 17, the case took a murkier turn when the police discovered his body on the terrace of the house.