 The CBI has opposed the bail plea of Vijay Mandal, one of the three suspects in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.The CBI on Thursday claimed in court that it has scientific evidence, but cannot reveal the contents of the case diary. This disclosure is significant, because the 14-day judicial custody of the two other suspects, Krishna and Raj Kumar, ends today. The CBI has to file its chargesheet within 90 days of Krishna's arrest, i.e. September 10. But so far it seems they do not have enough evidence against the accused. Aarushi Talwar was murdered on May 16. |
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Aarushi murder: CBI opposes Mandal's bail plea
Aarushi murder accused may be turned approver - CBI sources admit they have failed to unearth any material evidence in the double murder
New Delhi, Monday, September 01: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to get an accused in the murders of teenager Aarushi and her family help Hemraj to turn approver as it nears the September-10 deadline to file chargesheet in the case it claimed to have cracked over 50 days ago. [Inset: Aarushi and the accused. Photo: Zee news] CBI sources admit they have failed to unearth any material evidence in the double murder that took place at the home of 14-year-old Aarushi, daughter of a reputed doctor couple in Noida.
The CBI is thus trying to get one of the accused to turn approver so that the case does not fall flat in the court.
“At present, there is no progress in terms of material evidence. We have the confessions of the accused in the form of the narco-analysis tests. So we are working (to see) if one of the accused agrees to turn approver as the chargesheet needs to be filed soon,” a CBI officer said.
An approver will admit his involvement in the murders along with the other accused. In lieu of this, the CBI will ask the court to be lenient while handing out punishment to him.
Aarushi was found killed with her throat slit May 16. The Noida police initially blamed family help Hemraj but backtracked after his body too was found a day later on the terrace of the apartment.
On July 11, CBI director Arun Kumar gave a clean chit to the girl’s dentist father Rajesh Talwar and accused his medical assistant Krishna and two others, Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal, on the basis of narco analysis tests.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Noida double murder case
From Wikipedia
Aarushi Talwar
Born
May 24, 1993(1993-05-24)
Died
May 15, 2008
On the morning of May 16, 2008, Aarushi Talwar (May 24, 1993 - May 15, 2008), the 14-year-old daughter of a successful dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in her parents' home at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida, a posh suburb of Delhi. Suspicion immediately fell on the family's live-in man-servant, Yam Prasad Banjade alias Hemraj, a 45-yr-old Nepalese national, who was found missing from the home. Immediately declaring Hemraj prime suspect, the Noida police announced a reward for information leading to Hemraj's apprehension and arrest. In addition, a police party was dispatched to his hometown in Nepal, in hopes of apprehending him there.
A post-mortem was conducted on Aarushi's body on May 17, 2008 after which it was cremated. Her parents took her ashes to the holy city of Haridwar for immersion in the waters of the Ganges. A retired Noida police officer, accompanying a relative of the Talwars, happened to visit the Talwars' home to express his condolences, and during his visit, detected blood stains on the stairs leading to the terrace of the flat. Following the trail of blood, Noida police detected the dead body of the missing domestic help, Hemraj, on the terrace. After a disorganised, long-drawn and completely bungled up investigation, the police finally arrested Dr. Rajesh Talwar, the father of the deceased girl, on May 23, 2008, charging him with having committed the double murder. His wife, Dr. Nupur Talwar, stoutly defended her husband, accused the Noida police of framing him, and requested Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation into the murders of Aarushi and Hemraj on June 1, 2008, forming a 25-member team in an resolute attempt to crack the case. As soon as CBI moved in to take over the case, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati promptly gave transfer orders to senior police officers that comprised part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that had previously been in charge of the investigation, including the Noida Senior Superintendent of Police, Satish Ganesh, Meerut range Deputy Inspector General of police and Meerut Inspector General, Gurdarshan Singh. As a matter of coincidence, in July 2008, the deputation of CBI officer Arun Kumar who was in charge of the investigation currently has ended; Arun Kumar is also from Uttar Pradesh police [1]. The investigations in the case appear to have slowed down. Delay in the investigations of this case, which has come to attract so much attention of all the Indians internationally, is a matter of dismay to all; as the recent feeling of urban India having turned into a modern and efficient society becomes more and more doubtful with every passing day with this landmark case remaining unsolved due to confused handling since beginning. On July 11, after CBI indicated lack of evidence against Dr. Rajesh Talwar, he was ordered to be released from police custody. CBI proceeded to frame the whole case against the compounder Krishna Thapa the compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar and two neighborhood domestic helps, Rajkumar (Nepalese domestic help of the family friends Duranis) and Sambhu (alias Vijay Mandal, a cook in the Talwars' neighboring house). Eminent criminal lawyer R. K. Anand has taken up the defence of Krishna.
Contents[hide]
1 Significance of the Case
2 Shoddy Investigation
3 Timeline of the Case
4 References
5 External Links
//
Significance of the Case
The case has received significant national attention, and has become representative for some of what they believe are recent tendencies towards sensationalism in the Indian media; accusations of "overkill" and "media-run trials" have been made[2]. Women and Child Development minister Renuka Chowdhury has come down heavily on the police for what she called "character assassination" of child victims; she has called for a commission to investigate whether legislation to enforce this is required[3]. The focus by 24-hour cable news on speculative aspects to the personal lives of the father and his dead daughter, and the media frenzy that has compromised the privacy of involved families has caused comparisons to be made to the JonBenet Ramsey case in the United States[4]. [Interestingly the case is just the reverse of Lizzie Borden, where a daughter was suspected of the murder of her parents, but was found not guilty.] The case has also attracted a lot of common man's attention as a bizarre whodunit [5] story which refuses to get solved. Many Indians have turned into armchair detectives in the process. The CBI had been receiving telephone calls from the public, which gave advice on the case[6]. Even Indian bloggers have taken an avid interest in mostly commenting [7] on the case.
Shoddy Investigation
The case has been hailed as the biggest murder mystery of 2008 (and by some sections of media as of all time). But there is little doubt that had the investigators taken a little care to conduct the investigations properly, the whole murdermystery hype could not have been generated at all. Undoubtedly, the moment Noida police entered the Talwars' residence, there would have been countless fingerprints and footprints of the culprits all over the place; especially. as now it has been stated by the CBI that the culprits were drinking beer in Hemraj's room, just before the murder. The police not only did not care to lift those fingerprints, but even allowed media to tread the crime scene freely. This is in sharp contrast to expected protocol, where the first thing that the police does is to secure the scene by putting a tape all round the scene.
A further botch up in the investigation was done by allowing doctors not trained in forensic pathology to conduct postmortems of both Aarushi and Hemraj. It is now well established that fingerprints of murderers can be lifted from the skin of murder victims.[8] Seeing the amount of struggle that must have gone in to kill the two victims, there seems little doubt that the murderers must have left their fingerprints all over their victims' bodies. No effort was made by the doctors entrusted with the work of carrying out autopsies to call forensic scientists to lift fingerprints from the dead bodies. It doesn't seem surprising, given that the doctors were not trained in forensic medicine at all.
Several lessons can be learnt from this murder mystery. The most significant of these is that there should be legal reform such that only a specialist would be allowed to conduct postmortems, at least on victims of homicide. Allowing general duty doctors to conduct postmortems is perhaps akin to asking a general duty doctor to do a surgery on the brain. But sadly while most in India would flinch at the idea of latter, the former wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.
[edit] Timeline of the Case
May 16, 2008
Aarushi Talwar, daughter of a dentist couple, found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her flat in Jalvayu Vihar; domestic help Hemraj (Nepalese national) suspected of murder.
May 17, 2008
Hemraj's body found on the terrace of Talwar's house.
Noida Sector-20 police Station Officer (S.O.) Dataram Nauneria shifted for lapses in investigations.
Autopsy report rules out sexual assault.
May 18, 2008
Police say murders done with surgical precision; insider job suspected.
Superintendent of Police (City) Mahesh Mishra transferred.
May 19, 2008
Talwar's former Nepalese domestic help Vishnu Sharma named suspect.
May 21, 2008
Delhi Police join murder probe; police say murder committed by a "doctor or a butcher".
May 22, 2008
Family under suspicion; honor killing angle probed; police quiz Aarushi's close friend, whom she spoke to 688 times in the 45 days preceding her murder.
May 23, 2008
Aarushi's father Dr. Rajesh Talwar arrested for the two murders.
June 13, 2008
The Nepalese compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, Krishna (alias Kishan) arrested by CBI. The arrest followed polygraph test and Narco Analysis test at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Bangalore the day before. He was earlier subjected to polygraph test twice at Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi as well as psychological assessment test at AIIMS, New Delhi on June 9, 2008; based on the test results, CBI arrested Krishna.
June 14, 2008
Krishna the compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar was produced before the duty magistrate, district courts, Ghaziabad. CBI requested for 14 days Police custody of Krishna for further investigation. The Magistrate granted 3 days police custody remand. He was to be produced before the Special Magistrate for CBI cases at Ghaziabad on June 17, 2008. Earlier on the, a CBI team conducted search at Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, where Krishna used to live. CBI team had seized some clothing and other materials for forensic examination. Rajkumar, the Nepalese domestic help of the Duranis, was subjected to polygraph test at CFSL, Delhi.
June 19, 2008
The judicial custody of Dr. Rajesh Talwar was extended up to July 2, 2008. An application was moved for second lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, as his first lie detection test remained inconclusive, experts advised for a second lie detection test. Lie detector test on also been conducted on Vijay Mandal the domestic help of a neighbor of the Talwars.
June 17, 2008
Krishna produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad. CBI applied for further 11 days police custody remand for continuing the investigation. The magistrate granted 6 days police custody. He was to be produced before CBI magistrate, Ghaziabad on June 23, 2008. A team accompanied by forensic expert thoroughly searched the room where Rajkumar used to live in Sector 53, Noida. Earlier, something seized from this room on June 13, 2008 was being forensically examined.
June 20, 2008
Lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar conducted at CFSL, Delhi.
June 23, 2008
Krishna arrested by CBI on June 13, 2008 produced before the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad. After completion of 6 days police custody given on June 17, 2008, CBI requested for further custody of Krishna for 4 days for further interrogation and recovery of weapon. The magistrate passed an order extending his further police custody for 4 days. He was to be produced before the Court on June 27, 2008.
June 25, 2008
Second lie detection test was conducted on Dr. Nupur Talwar. Her first lie detection test was found inconclusive.
June 26, 2008
The CBI declared the case to be a "blind case". Dr. Rajesh Talwar refused bail by the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad.
June 27, 2008
Krishna taken to Talwars' residence by the CBI and thereafter produced before the special magistrate, where his bail plea was rejected once again. The Talwars' family friends Duranis' Nepalese domestic help Rajkumar arrested on the suspicion of involvement in the murder. Some washed T-shirts with faint human blood stains seized and sent for DNA matching. However, the Duranis (doctors themselves) maintained that the stains could be from the boils that Rajkumar had on his body. Rajkumar had already been subjected to polygraph test, psychological assessment, brain mapping and narco analysis at FSL, Gandhinagar from June 23 to June 26, 2008.
June 28, 2008
Rajkumar produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad and is sent to police custody for 14 days. He looked unperturbed with a smile.
June 30, 2008
Krishna's lawyer approached a Ghaziabad court for his bail. However, it was refused because the court that was approached did not have sufficient powers in this case. CBI joint director Arun Kumar who was in charge of the investigation received a letter from Uttar Pradesh government for recall to his original cadre in Uttar Pradesh.
July 2, 2008
Once again, Dr. Rajesh Talwar was produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad. His bail plea was rejected and his judicial custody extended till July 11, 2008. CBI said that he was still among the suspects.
July 3, 2008
The supreme court of India rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) case which challenged the administration of narco-analysis test on the accused in the case. A bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir refused to hear the petion, as the petitioner, a lawyers' body, was an unregistered entity.
July 6, 2008
A major English daily [9] revealed that, apparently, on the night the murders were committed, the dentist couple Dr. Rajesh and Dr. Nupur left their flat around midnight and came back around 5 AM. They went to a high society party for which some 12 suites were booked in a posh South Delhi hotel.
July 7, 2008
CBI came out with an official statement on their site, stating, "A section of media has reported quoting CBI sources that Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar were not present in their house on the night of 15th May, 2008 and more than a dozen rooms were booked in a hotel in Delhi. It is clarified that the news item is speculative and not true. Investigation of the case is progressing diligently." Earlier, Dr. Nupur Talwar went to the CBI headquarters and refuted the allegations regarding their absence on the night of the murders. She also expressed her intentions to take legal action against the media house. However, some other TV channels debated the merits of her and CBI's affirmations in the light of glaring gaps in the Talwars' story.
July 9, 2008
Rajkumar, the domestic help of the Durranis who are close associates and family friends of the Talwars, was subjected by CBI to narco-analysis test at FSL Bangalore. Rajkumar's police custody ends on July 11, 2008. It was Rajkumar's second narco-analysis test.
July 10, 2008
A news report on some TV channels suggested that CBI had some breakthrough on Rajkumar as the culprit and had confessed during narco-analysis test. He was learned to have committed this along with Krishna, Sambhu and allegedly Hemraj also. The reason told by him was lust and killing Hemraj for fear that Hemraj might have disclosed information.
July 11, 2008
Vijay Mandal (alias Sambhu) the servant one of the neighbors of the Talwars was arrested by the CBI. Arun Kumar, Joint Director CBI, held a press conference. In the press conference he stated that the CBI was awaiting DNA matching of washed blood stains on Rajkumar's T-shirts. He confirmed the affirmation that the CBI still considered a blind case. He expressed hope that the case will be fully solved very soon and thereafter another press conference will be called. Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Krishna both appeared before special CBI court, Ghaziabad to seek bail. Their petitioned were heard and Dr. Rajesh Talwar has been decided to be realeased on bail, as the CBI had no evidence against him as of now. Eminent criminal lawyer R. K. Anand undertook to defend Krishna. CBI now tentatively believes some two or three domestic helps and Krishna to be the prime suspects. However, CBI just has forensic evidence which is not admissible as evidence in the court. Still, there is no recovery of the weapon of murder and the two cellphones respectively of Aarushi amd Hemraj.
July 12, 2008
Dr. Rajesh Talwar has been freed on bail from the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad. The news of his release brought back widespread media attention to the case. Channels did all kinds of clever programing to compete for the attention of frenzied channel surfing TV viewers. Vijay Mandal was sent to 3-days' CBI custody by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Dinesh Kumar in Ghaziabad [10]. Vijay Mandal has been accused under 302, 201, 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
July 15, 2008
Vijay Mandal's police custody extended for four more days [11]. The CBI expected to find the murder weapon and the cellphones of Aarushi and Hemraj with Mandal's help.
July 16, 2008
An association of Nepalese citizens alleged that Krishna and Rajkumar were being pressurized to come out with confessional statements [12].
July 18, 2008
CBI has not seized any evidence and is yet to receive crucial forensic report on accused Rajkumar, according to media reports. It has weakened of the case against the three in the CBI net — Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. The CBI claimed near closing of the case even when preliminary reports from Hyderabad's Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, according to media reports [13], suggested that identifying the blood on the T-shirt "may or may not be possible"; separating DNA from garment after a lapse of two months is not always possible, because of the disintegration of the red blood cells on the cloth.
July 19, 2008
Vijay Mandal sent again into police custody for four more days.
July 21
Rastriya Jana Morcha (RJM) chairman Chitra Bahadur K.C. alleged that two Nepalese nationals Krishna Thapa and Rajkumar were falsely accused by the CBI in the case [14], in order to save Dr. Rajesh Talwar. The party has decided to raise the issue in the Nepalese parliament. The party would also approach the Nepalese government and the national human rights commission to save the two.
July 22, 2008
A bench comprising of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice Markandey Katju of the supreme court of India instructed the media to be careful[15]. This came up during a hearing on a public interest lawsuit that has raised questions on the media coverage of the high-profile murder case. In the probe, the character of the victim's parents was hotly debated, especially of Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar who was arrested initially as the main accused. However, no observations were made about the compounder Krishna and the other two domestic helps Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. In this case, a distinctions seems to have appeared according to the accused persons' class and national identities.
July 25, 2008
The Police custody of the accused Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal was extended till August 8. The three accused were brought to the Ghaziabad court handcuffed and all linked to a rope. The judge objected to the subhuman treatment of the accused and the police officer tendered his apologies [16].
July 31, 2008
A leading Hindi channel Aaj Tak aired a news report which made allegations of repeatedly drilling desirable information into one of the accused Vijay Mandal, prior to the narco-analysis tests. Further, there were allegations that Mandal's confessions during narco-analysis tests too had many gaps.
References
^ "Deputation of CBI officer probing Noida case ends". The Times of India (2008-06-03). Retrieved on 2008-07-03.
^ "Spotlight turns on media overkill". Gulf Times (2008-06-06). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Correspondent, Special (2008-06-03). "Give Child Victims Due Respect", The Hindu, pp. 11. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Singh, Madhur; New Delhi (2008-05-29). "India's JonBenet Ramsey Case?", Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Bhattacharya, Priyanka (2008-06-16). "Aarushi case makes every Indian curious", NDTV.com, NATION, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
^ Baweja, Harinder; New Delhi (2008-06-28). "Two Funerals And A Hundred Blunders", Tehelka Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
^ "Blogs about: Aarushi Hemraj Murder Case", Wordpress.com (2008-06-24). Retrieved on 2008-06-24.
^ Trapecar M, Balazic J. "Fingerprint recovery from human skin surfaces." Sci Justice. 2007 Nov;47(3):136-40. PMID 18051035
^ Sharma, Aman (2008-07-06). "TALWARS WERE OUT PARTYING ON NIGHT OF KILLINGS" cover story. Mail Today. Retrieved on 2008-07-07.
^ Khandelwal, Peeyush (2008-07-12). "Court sends Vijay Mandal to three-day CBI custody" Uttar Pradesh. Hindustan Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
^ IANS (2008-07-15). "Aarushi murder: Vijay Mandal in CBI custody for four days" Delhi. The Times of India. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
^ Dutta, Kapil (2008-07-17). "Nepalis bat for Krishna, Rajkumar" Uttar Pradesh. Hindustan Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-17.
^ Parashar, Sachin (2008-07-19). "CBI still has no real proof in Aarushi case" Delhi. The Times of India. Retrieved on 2008-07-19.
^ Roy, Barun (2008-07-21). "Nepal party sees a plot in Aarushi murder case". The Himalayan Beacon. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
^ IANS (2008-07-22). "Apex court cautions media in reporting Aarushi murder case" Politics/Nation. The Economic Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
^ IANS (2008-07-25). "Judicial custody of Aarushi murder accused extended". Theindian News. Retrieved on 2008-07-26.
External Links
Official Blog site related to Murder-Mystery
Official website of Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi, India
Official website of Noida Police
Aarushi murder case: questions un-answered, a blog discussing the case.
Aarushi Murder Case, a website on possible clues.
Aarushi Talwar
Born
May 24, 1993(1993-05-24)
Died
May 15, 2008
On the morning of May 16, 2008, Aarushi Talwar (May 24, 1993 - May 15, 2008), the 14-year-old daughter of a successful dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in her parents' home at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida, a posh suburb of Delhi. Suspicion immediately fell on the family's live-in man-servant, Yam Prasad Banjade alias Hemraj, a 45-yr-old Nepalese national, who was found missing from the home. Immediately declaring Hemraj prime suspect, the Noida police announced a reward for information leading to Hemraj's apprehension and arrest. In addition, a police party was dispatched to his hometown in Nepal, in hopes of apprehending him there.
A post-mortem was conducted on Aarushi's body on May 17, 2008 after which it was cremated. Her parents took her ashes to the holy city of Haridwar for immersion in the waters of the Ganges. A retired Noida police officer, accompanying a relative of the Talwars, happened to visit the Talwars' home to express his condolences, and during his visit, detected blood stains on the stairs leading to the terrace of the flat. Following the trail of blood, Noida police detected the dead body of the missing domestic help, Hemraj, on the terrace. After a disorganised, long-drawn and completely bungled up investigation, the police finally arrested Dr. Rajesh Talwar, the father of the deceased girl, on May 23, 2008, charging him with having committed the double murder. His wife, Dr. Nupur Talwar, stoutly defended her husband, accused the Noida police of framing him, and requested Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation into the murders of Aarushi and Hemraj on June 1, 2008, forming a 25-member team in an resolute attempt to crack the case. As soon as CBI moved in to take over the case, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati promptly gave transfer orders to senior police officers that comprised part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that had previously been in charge of the investigation, including the Noida Senior Superintendent of Police, Satish Ganesh, Meerut range Deputy Inspector General of police and Meerut Inspector General, Gurdarshan Singh. As a matter of coincidence, in July 2008, the deputation of CBI officer Arun Kumar who was in charge of the investigation currently has ended; Arun Kumar is also from Uttar Pradesh police [1]. The investigations in the case appear to have slowed down. Delay in the investigations of this case, which has come to attract so much attention of all the Indians internationally, is a matter of dismay to all; as the recent feeling of urban India having turned into a modern and efficient society becomes more and more doubtful with every passing day with this landmark case remaining unsolved due to confused handling since beginning. On July 11, after CBI indicated lack of evidence against Dr. Rajesh Talwar, he was ordered to be released from police custody. CBI proceeded to frame the whole case against the compounder Krishna Thapa the compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar and two neighborhood domestic helps, Rajkumar (Nepalese domestic help of the family friends Duranis) and Sambhu (alias Vijay Mandal, a cook in the Talwars' neighboring house). Eminent criminal lawyer R. K. Anand has taken up the defence of Krishna.
Contents[hide]
1 Significance of the Case
2 Shoddy Investigation
3 Timeline of the Case
4 References
5 External Links
//
Significance of the Case
The case has received significant national attention, and has become representative for some of what they believe are recent tendencies towards sensationalism in the Indian media; accusations of "overkill" and "media-run trials" have been made[2]. Women and Child Development minister Renuka Chowdhury has come down heavily on the police for what she called "character assassination" of child victims; she has called for a commission to investigate whether legislation to enforce this is required[3]. The focus by 24-hour cable news on speculative aspects to the personal lives of the father and his dead daughter, and the media frenzy that has compromised the privacy of involved families has caused comparisons to be made to the JonBenet Ramsey case in the United States[4]. [Interestingly the case is just the reverse of Lizzie Borden, where a daughter was suspected of the murder of her parents, but was found not guilty.] The case has also attracted a lot of common man's attention as a bizarre whodunit [5] story which refuses to get solved. Many Indians have turned into armchair detectives in the process. The CBI had been receiving telephone calls from the public, which gave advice on the case[6]. Even Indian bloggers have taken an avid interest in mostly commenting [7] on the case.
Shoddy Investigation
The case has been hailed as the biggest murder mystery of 2008 (and by some sections of media as of all time). But there is little doubt that had the investigators taken a little care to conduct the investigations properly, the whole murdermystery hype could not have been generated at all. Undoubtedly, the moment Noida police entered the Talwars' residence, there would have been countless fingerprints and footprints of the culprits all over the place; especially. as now it has been stated by the CBI that the culprits were drinking beer in Hemraj's room, just before the murder. The police not only did not care to lift those fingerprints, but even allowed media to tread the crime scene freely. This is in sharp contrast to expected protocol, where the first thing that the police does is to secure the scene by putting a tape all round the scene.
A further botch up in the investigation was done by allowing doctors not trained in forensic pathology to conduct postmortems of both Aarushi and Hemraj. It is now well established that fingerprints of murderers can be lifted from the skin of murder victims.[8] Seeing the amount of struggle that must have gone in to kill the two victims, there seems little doubt that the murderers must have left their fingerprints all over their victims' bodies. No effort was made by the doctors entrusted with the work of carrying out autopsies to call forensic scientists to lift fingerprints from the dead bodies. It doesn't seem surprising, given that the doctors were not trained in forensic medicine at all.
Several lessons can be learnt from this murder mystery. The most significant of these is that there should be legal reform such that only a specialist would be allowed to conduct postmortems, at least on victims of homicide. Allowing general duty doctors to conduct postmortems is perhaps akin to asking a general duty doctor to do a surgery on the brain. But sadly while most in India would flinch at the idea of latter, the former wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.
[edit] Timeline of the Case
May 16, 2008
Aarushi Talwar, daughter of a dentist couple, found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her flat in Jalvayu Vihar; domestic help Hemraj (Nepalese national) suspected of murder.
May 17, 2008
Hemraj's body found on the terrace of Talwar's house.
Noida Sector-20 police Station Officer (S.O.) Dataram Nauneria shifted for lapses in investigations.
Autopsy report rules out sexual assault.
May 18, 2008
Police say murders done with surgical precision; insider job suspected.
Superintendent of Police (City) Mahesh Mishra transferred.
May 19, 2008
Talwar's former Nepalese domestic help Vishnu Sharma named suspect.
May 21, 2008
Delhi Police join murder probe; police say murder committed by a "doctor or a butcher".
May 22, 2008
Family under suspicion; honor killing angle probed; police quiz Aarushi's close friend, whom she spoke to 688 times in the 45 days preceding her murder.
May 23, 2008
Aarushi's father Dr. Rajesh Talwar arrested for the two murders.
June 13, 2008
The Nepalese compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, Krishna (alias Kishan) arrested by CBI. The arrest followed polygraph test and Narco Analysis test at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Bangalore the day before. He was earlier subjected to polygraph test twice at Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi as well as psychological assessment test at AIIMS, New Delhi on June 9, 2008; based on the test results, CBI arrested Krishna.
June 14, 2008
Krishna the compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar was produced before the duty magistrate, district courts, Ghaziabad. CBI requested for 14 days Police custody of Krishna for further investigation. The Magistrate granted 3 days police custody remand. He was to be produced before the Special Magistrate for CBI cases at Ghaziabad on June 17, 2008. Earlier on the, a CBI team conducted search at Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, where Krishna used to live. CBI team had seized some clothing and other materials for forensic examination. Rajkumar, the Nepalese domestic help of the Duranis, was subjected to polygraph test at CFSL, Delhi.
June 19, 2008
The judicial custody of Dr. Rajesh Talwar was extended up to July 2, 2008. An application was moved for second lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, as his first lie detection test remained inconclusive, experts advised for a second lie detection test. Lie detector test on also been conducted on Vijay Mandal the domestic help of a neighbor of the Talwars.
June 17, 2008
Krishna produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad. CBI applied for further 11 days police custody remand for continuing the investigation. The magistrate granted 6 days police custody. He was to be produced before CBI magistrate, Ghaziabad on June 23, 2008. A team accompanied by forensic expert thoroughly searched the room where Rajkumar used to live in Sector 53, Noida. Earlier, something seized from this room on June 13, 2008 was being forensically examined.
June 20, 2008
Lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar conducted at CFSL, Delhi.
June 23, 2008
Krishna arrested by CBI on June 13, 2008 produced before the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad. After completion of 6 days police custody given on June 17, 2008, CBI requested for further custody of Krishna for 4 days for further interrogation and recovery of weapon. The magistrate passed an order extending his further police custody for 4 days. He was to be produced before the Court on June 27, 2008.
June 25, 2008
Second lie detection test was conducted on Dr. Nupur Talwar. Her first lie detection test was found inconclusive.
June 26, 2008
The CBI declared the case to be a "blind case". Dr. Rajesh Talwar refused bail by the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad.
June 27, 2008
Krishna taken to Talwars' residence by the CBI and thereafter produced before the special magistrate, where his bail plea was rejected once again. The Talwars' family friends Duranis' Nepalese domestic help Rajkumar arrested on the suspicion of involvement in the murder. Some washed T-shirts with faint human blood stains seized and sent for DNA matching. However, the Duranis (doctors themselves) maintained that the stains could be from the boils that Rajkumar had on his body. Rajkumar had already been subjected to polygraph test, psychological assessment, brain mapping and narco analysis at FSL, Gandhinagar from June 23 to June 26, 2008.
June 28, 2008
Rajkumar produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad and is sent to police custody for 14 days. He looked unperturbed with a smile.
June 30, 2008
Krishna's lawyer approached a Ghaziabad court for his bail. However, it was refused because the court that was approached did not have sufficient powers in this case. CBI joint director Arun Kumar who was in charge of the investigation received a letter from Uttar Pradesh government for recall to his original cadre in Uttar Pradesh.
July 2, 2008
Once again, Dr. Rajesh Talwar was produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad. His bail plea was rejected and his judicial custody extended till July 11, 2008. CBI said that he was still among the suspects.
July 3, 2008
The supreme court of India rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) case which challenged the administration of narco-analysis test on the accused in the case. A bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir refused to hear the petion, as the petitioner, a lawyers' body, was an unregistered entity.
July 6, 2008
A major English daily [9] revealed that, apparently, on the night the murders were committed, the dentist couple Dr. Rajesh and Dr. Nupur left their flat around midnight and came back around 5 AM. They went to a high society party for which some 12 suites were booked in a posh South Delhi hotel.
July 7, 2008
CBI came out with an official statement on their site, stating, "A section of media has reported quoting CBI sources that Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar were not present in their house on the night of 15th May, 2008 and more than a dozen rooms were booked in a hotel in Delhi. It is clarified that the news item is speculative and not true. Investigation of the case is progressing diligently." Earlier, Dr. Nupur Talwar went to the CBI headquarters and refuted the allegations regarding their absence on the night of the murders. She also expressed her intentions to take legal action against the media house. However, some other TV channels debated the merits of her and CBI's affirmations in the light of glaring gaps in the Talwars' story.
July 9, 2008
Rajkumar, the domestic help of the Durranis who are close associates and family friends of the Talwars, was subjected by CBI to narco-analysis test at FSL Bangalore. Rajkumar's police custody ends on July 11, 2008. It was Rajkumar's second narco-analysis test.
July 10, 2008
A news report on some TV channels suggested that CBI had some breakthrough on Rajkumar as the culprit and had confessed during narco-analysis test. He was learned to have committed this along with Krishna, Sambhu and allegedly Hemraj also. The reason told by him was lust and killing Hemraj for fear that Hemraj might have disclosed information.
July 11, 2008
Vijay Mandal (alias Sambhu) the servant one of the neighbors of the Talwars was arrested by the CBI. Arun Kumar, Joint Director CBI, held a press conference. In the press conference he stated that the CBI was awaiting DNA matching of washed blood stains on Rajkumar's T-shirts. He confirmed the affirmation that the CBI still considered a blind case. He expressed hope that the case will be fully solved very soon and thereafter another press conference will be called. Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Krishna both appeared before special CBI court, Ghaziabad to seek bail. Their petitioned were heard and Dr. Rajesh Talwar has been decided to be realeased on bail, as the CBI had no evidence against him as of now. Eminent criminal lawyer R. K. Anand undertook to defend Krishna. CBI now tentatively believes some two or three domestic helps and Krishna to be the prime suspects. However, CBI just has forensic evidence which is not admissible as evidence in the court. Still, there is no recovery of the weapon of murder and the two cellphones respectively of Aarushi amd Hemraj.
July 12, 2008
Dr. Rajesh Talwar has been freed on bail from the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad. The news of his release brought back widespread media attention to the case. Channels did all kinds of clever programing to compete for the attention of frenzied channel surfing TV viewers. Vijay Mandal was sent to 3-days' CBI custody by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Dinesh Kumar in Ghaziabad [10]. Vijay Mandal has been accused under 302, 201, 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
July 15, 2008
Vijay Mandal's police custody extended for four more days [11]. The CBI expected to find the murder weapon and the cellphones of Aarushi and Hemraj with Mandal's help.
July 16, 2008
An association of Nepalese citizens alleged that Krishna and Rajkumar were being pressurized to come out with confessional statements [12].
July 18, 2008
CBI has not seized any evidence and is yet to receive crucial forensic report on accused Rajkumar, according to media reports. It has weakened of the case against the three in the CBI net — Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. The CBI claimed near closing of the case even when preliminary reports from Hyderabad's Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, according to media reports [13], suggested that identifying the blood on the T-shirt "may or may not be possible"; separating DNA from garment after a lapse of two months is not always possible, because of the disintegration of the red blood cells on the cloth.
July 19, 2008
Vijay Mandal sent again into police custody for four more days.
July 21
Rastriya Jana Morcha (RJM) chairman Chitra Bahadur K.C. alleged that two Nepalese nationals Krishna Thapa and Rajkumar were falsely accused by the CBI in the case [14], in order to save Dr. Rajesh Talwar. The party has decided to raise the issue in the Nepalese parliament. The party would also approach the Nepalese government and the national human rights commission to save the two.
July 22, 2008
A bench comprising of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice Markandey Katju of the supreme court of India instructed the media to be careful[15]. This came up during a hearing on a public interest lawsuit that has raised questions on the media coverage of the high-profile murder case. In the probe, the character of the victim's parents was hotly debated, especially of Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar who was arrested initially as the main accused. However, no observations were made about the compounder Krishna and the other two domestic helps Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. In this case, a distinctions seems to have appeared according to the accused persons' class and national identities.
July 25, 2008
The Police custody of the accused Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal was extended till August 8. The three accused were brought to the Ghaziabad court handcuffed and all linked to a rope. The judge objected to the subhuman treatment of the accused and the police officer tendered his apologies [16].
July 31, 2008
A leading Hindi channel Aaj Tak aired a news report which made allegations of repeatedly drilling desirable information into one of the accused Vijay Mandal, prior to the narco-analysis tests. Further, there were allegations that Mandal's confessions during narco-analysis tests too had many gaps.
References
^ "Deputation of CBI officer probing Noida case ends". The Times of India (2008-06-03). Retrieved on 2008-07-03.
^ "Spotlight turns on media overkill". Gulf Times (2008-06-06). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Correspondent, Special (2008-06-03). "Give Child Victims Due Respect", The Hindu, pp. 11. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Singh, Madhur; New Delhi (2008-05-29). "India's JonBenet Ramsey Case?", Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
^ Bhattacharya, Priyanka (2008-06-16). "Aarushi case makes every Indian curious", NDTV.com, NATION, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
^ Baweja, Harinder; New Delhi (2008-06-28). "Two Funerals And A Hundred Blunders", Tehelka Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
^ "Blogs about: Aarushi Hemraj Murder Case", Wordpress.com (2008-06-24). Retrieved on 2008-06-24.
^ Trapecar M, Balazic J. "Fingerprint recovery from human skin surfaces." Sci Justice. 2007 Nov;47(3):136-40. PMID 18051035
^ Sharma, Aman (2008-07-06). "TALWARS WERE OUT PARTYING ON NIGHT OF KILLINGS" cover story. Mail Today. Retrieved on 2008-07-07.
^ Khandelwal, Peeyush (2008-07-12). "Court sends Vijay Mandal to three-day CBI custody" Uttar Pradesh. Hindustan Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
^ IANS (2008-07-15). "Aarushi murder: Vijay Mandal in CBI custody for four days" Delhi. The Times of India. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
^ Dutta, Kapil (2008-07-17). "Nepalis bat for Krishna, Rajkumar" Uttar Pradesh. Hindustan Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-17.
^ Parashar, Sachin (2008-07-19). "CBI still has no real proof in Aarushi case" Delhi. The Times of India. Retrieved on 2008-07-19.
^ Roy, Barun (2008-07-21). "Nepal party sees a plot in Aarushi murder case". The Himalayan Beacon. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
^ IANS (2008-07-22). "Apex court cautions media in reporting Aarushi murder case" Politics/Nation. The Economic Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
^ IANS (2008-07-25). "Judicial custody of Aarushi murder accused extended". Theindian News. Retrieved on 2008-07-26.
External Links
Official Blog site related to Murder-Mystery
Official website of Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi, India
Official website of Noida Police
Aarushi murder case: questions un-answered, a blog discussing the case.
Aarushi Murder Case, a website on possible clues.
FACT on Aarushi Murder case
Updated Recently
. She was born after 5 years of marriage by the use of IVF techniques.
FACT 2. The parents must have been very sure of their inability to have a natural conception, hence the decision to go for IVF.
CONJECTURE 1. Conduct Aarushi’s parental testing.
FACT 3. Asthma and impotence have a connection.
FACT 4. The use of steroids to treat an asthmatic patient may further aggravate impotence.
FACT 5. Impotence and male sexual dysfunction is many a time responsible for abnormal sexual habits and may lead to making extreme choices in life and even to murder. Right from the case of Jack the Ripper, it had been suspected to have played a role in murders. Recently, in India the less-reported though shocking case of Darbara Singh in Punjab is notable for the connection between impotence and the guilty turning to child abuse and murder.
FACT 6. Domestic helps in Delhi and other big cities in India are known to frequently indulge in overt and covert form of child abuse to the children of their employers.
CONJECTURE 2. Hemraj could have been murdered over a financial dispute. However, Aarushi was later murdered just to defocus the investigation. The murderers targeted a lone girl, because they could not have successfully attempted to kill the parents. This could also explain why Hemraj had feared for his life for some time. The catch here is, why Hemraj had to call his accomplices in the darkness of night when he had the whole day (till Aarushi came back from school) to him. Was it that Hemraj contemplated murdering his financial tormentor / s and got murdered himself in the process?
FACT 7. Although the murderer / s were careful to carry the cellphones of Aarushi and Hemraj along, the three glasses were neatly left behind in Hemraj's room, which clearly gave them away.
CONJECTURE 3. Were the three glasses planted by somebody?
FACT 8. Hemraj had not eaten anything that night. Either he was drugged or he was expecting visitors late in night, who would have promised to bring some special food with them.
CONJECTURE 4. Talwar couple, according to Mail Today (July 6, 2008), were out the whole night, partying till they came back at 5 AM. Did they keep the door of Aarushi's bedroom open purposefully? Otherwise, even when they were at home, they would keep her locked inside her bedroom the whole night. They made it into a habit to lock her in, because they did not want her to find them out, as it was a regular feature for the couple to give her the slip past midnight. Did they in a hurry forgot to lock the door? If it was so, then why didn't Hemraj eat anything that night? Did he purposefully misplaced Aarushi's bedroom door key? And the Talwars did not want to miss the party, looking for the key? Hemraj had a stint in Mauritius and was close to the Maoists too; he definitely could have been an old fox. Possibly, he got the first tip off about the couple's nightly rendezvous and reached the info to Aarushi, in order to inveigle her. The couple and other couples did not want to have such mysterious night parties at home, because their grown up children would have objected to such parties which needed bedrooms. (If you go by the Mail Today report, they needed 12 bedrooms for the party that night.)
CONJECTURE 5. Aarushi and Hemraj were on a detection spree and were becoming nosy and were on the night-party scent. They had some pictures on their cells too. The group of a dozen couples got intimidated and wanted to stop the amateur detectives from troubling and exposing them. So, a plan was hatched to trick Hemraj to gain entry to the house by other mercenary servants who could have been given a go ahead by some of their employers (part of the night-party group); and in a licensed move they removed the amateur detectives as well as the cellphones containing unknown pictures.
July 23, 2008
. She was born after 5 years of marriage by the use of IVF techniques.
FACT 2. The parents must have been very sure of their inability to have a natural conception, hence the decision to go for IVF.
CONJECTURE 1. Conduct Aarushi’s parental testing.
FACT 3. Asthma and impotence have a connection.
FACT 4. The use of steroids to treat an asthmatic patient may further aggravate impotence.
FACT 5. Impotence and male sexual dysfunction is many a time responsible for abnormal sexual habits and may lead to making extreme choices in life and even to murder. Right from the case of Jack the Ripper, it had been suspected to have played a role in murders. Recently, in India the less-reported though shocking case of Darbara Singh in Punjab is notable for the connection between impotence and the guilty turning to child abuse and murder.
FACT 6. Domestic helps in Delhi and other big cities in India are known to frequently indulge in overt and covert form of child abuse to the children of their employers.
CONJECTURE 2. Hemraj could have been murdered over a financial dispute. However, Aarushi was later murdered just to defocus the investigation. The murderers targeted a lone girl, because they could not have successfully attempted to kill the parents. This could also explain why Hemraj had feared for his life for some time. The catch here is, why Hemraj had to call his accomplices in the darkness of night when he had the whole day (till Aarushi came back from school) to him. Was it that Hemraj contemplated murdering his financial tormentor / s and got murdered himself in the process?
FACT 7. Although the murderer / s were careful to carry the cellphones of Aarushi and Hemraj along, the three glasses were neatly left behind in Hemraj's room, which clearly gave them away.
CONJECTURE 3. Were the three glasses planted by somebody?
FACT 8. Hemraj had not eaten anything that night. Either he was drugged or he was expecting visitors late in night, who would have promised to bring some special food with them.
CONJECTURE 4. Talwar couple, according to Mail Today (July 6, 2008), were out the whole night, partying till they came back at 5 AM. Did they keep the door of Aarushi's bedroom open purposefully? Otherwise, even when they were at home, they would keep her locked inside her bedroom the whole night. They made it into a habit to lock her in, because they did not want her to find them out, as it was a regular feature for the couple to give her the slip past midnight. Did they in a hurry forgot to lock the door? If it was so, then why didn't Hemraj eat anything that night? Did he purposefully misplaced Aarushi's bedroom door key? And the Talwars did not want to miss the party, looking for the key? Hemraj had a stint in Mauritius and was close to the Maoists too; he definitely could have been an old fox. Possibly, he got the first tip off about the couple's nightly rendezvous and reached the info to Aarushi, in order to inveigle her. The couple and other couples did not want to have such mysterious night parties at home, because their grown up children would have objected to such parties which needed bedrooms. (If you go by the Mail Today report, they needed 12 bedrooms for the party that night.)
CONJECTURE 5. Aarushi and Hemraj were on a detection spree and were becoming nosy and were on the night-party scent. They had some pictures on their cells too. The group of a dozen couples got intimidated and wanted to stop the amateur detectives from troubling and exposing them. So, a plan was hatched to trick Hemraj to gain entry to the house by other mercenary servants who could have been given a go ahead by some of their employers (part of the night-party group); and in a licensed move they removed the amateur detectives as well as the cellphones containing unknown pictures.
July 23, 2008
TALWARS WERE OUT PARTYING ON NIGHT OF KILLINGS
TALWARS WERE OUT PARTYING ON NIGHT OF KILLINGS
(Courtesy Mail Today, New Delhi)
CBI sources say Arushi’s parents were at a hotel when murders took place
By Ishan singh New Delhi
THE CENTRAL Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seems convinced Dr Rajesh Talwar and his wife Nupur weren’t home when their daughter Arushi and domestic help Hemraj were murdered on the night of May 15. Investigations show that the Talwars were home till about 11.42 pm and Dr Rajesh Talwar was indeed on the computer surfing the Net, as he has claimed. But he and his wife left their Jalvayu Vihar house in Noida thereafter, for a party hosted by their high- profile friends at an upscale South Delhi hotel. Sources in the investigating agency say they have checked the hotel’s records and found that over a dozen rooms were booked for the party on the night of May 15. The sleuths zeroed in on the hotel after they found concrete evidence to suggest that the Talwar couple had left their flat soon after midnight on May 15 and returned around 5am the next day. Arushi, who had dinner with her family the night before, was murdered when her parents were away. So was Hemraj. His body dumped on the terrace. But if that’s so, the question that comes to mind is why does Dr Talwar continue to languish in prison for over a month? That’s because the CBI has reasons to believe that Dr Talwar has been withholding important case details and perhaps had a hand in destroying evidence related to the murders. The sources say the Talwar couple has been persistently refusing to come clean on the May 15 party and has stonewalled every effort to extract details on what this get- together was about and who were present there. This, the sleuths say, is curious. It is entirely possible that the motive behind the murders is hidden here. The line that the couple has thus far taken is that they were at home and had slept through the twin murders. But when quizzed about the party, both Talwar and his wife have been dodging a response. Repeated polygraph tests, too, haven’t helped. In fact, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar have undergone two lie- detector tests each. They have come up with conflicting statements on the sequence of events on May 15- 16 during each of these sessions. “It is possible that they have been shying away from sharing the details of the party to save their reputation. Also, their friends present there might have pressured the couple to clamp up,” aCBI source said. This explains the CBI’s constant crib also in court that the Talwars weren’t cooperating with the probe. Another missing link in the case is Arushi’s mobile phone. The phone, missing since the night of the murder, could hold the murder motive. It is possible that the murdered 14- year- old could have used it to shoot some pictures which Krishna, Dr Talwar’s compounder, and Rajkumar, Dr Anita Durani’s help, was trying to get their hands on. The phone could have come in handy to blackmail Dr Talwar’s influential friends. The other hypothesis the investigators are working on relates to some of Dr Talwar’s influential friends and acquaintances commissioning the domestic helps to obtain Arushi’s mobile phone, which could have contained some photographs of particular interest to them. The investigators have forensic evidence to suggest that Arushi’s assailants had afree run at the Talwars’ Jalvayu Vihar flat on the night of May 15. The outer face of the door to the girl’s room had blood stains implying it was left ajar when she was being murdered. “It’s not possible that the killers, when they struck, left the door open. Had the parents been at home, they would have been only a few feet away in the adjoining room. The spot where Hemraj’s body was found on the terrace was directly above the Talwars’ bedroom. Had they been in their room they would have heard a man struggling to save himself from his killers. All the more so because there is enough evidence to suggest Hemraj had grappled with his assailants,” the CBI officer said. Their behaviour when the maid came around 6am on May 16 too was suspicious. The couple had labelled Hemraj the killer even without having checked his room or looking for him on the terrace. The theory that the Talwars returned home only at 5am on May 16 gains currency also because the terrace door was found locked and CBI feels that Dr Talwar had put that lock after discovering Hemraj’s body. “If the killers, as we believe, used the terrace to flee after murdering Arushi and Hemraj, then who locked the door of the terrace where Hemraj’s body lay for almost 36 hours before it was discovered?” he added. The court, while dismissing Dr Talwar’s bail plea, had wondered why the doctor hadn’t searched his terrace even though he had labelled Hemraj as Arushi’s killer on May 16. The sequence of events leading to the discovery of the body suggest that the Talwars had left for Hardwar to conduct Arushi’s last rites ashort while before K. K. Gautam, a former UP Police officer, landed up at their residence to offer condolences. The CBI seems of the view that the discovery of Hemraj’s body on the morning of May 17 could have been orchestrated. “Dinesh Talwar, Dr Rajesh’s brother, was not shocked when he saw the body after the police team broke open the terrace door. The Talwar couple had also refused to cut short their journey and identify Hemraj’s body,” he said. But who murdered Arushi and Hemraj and why? The CBI says the answer to this lies in the arrest of Krishna and Rajkumar. Another domestic help of the Talwars’ neighbour, Vijay Mandal, is being subjected to scientific tests and could be arrested soon. Krishna’s confession before the CBI that he took a khukri to the Talwar flat on the night of the Arushi-Hemraj twin murder is important. Rajkumar has confessed to his deep involvement in the twin killings and that he had destroyed Arushi’s mobile phone. Krishna, during his narco test earlier, had said Rajkumar had “eyed” Arushi and tried to sexually assault her before the murders.
(Courtesy Mail Today, New Delhi)
CBI sources say Arushi’s parents were at a hotel when murders took place
By Ishan singh New Delhi
THE CENTRAL Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seems convinced Dr Rajesh Talwar and his wife Nupur weren’t home when their daughter Arushi and domestic help Hemraj were murdered on the night of May 15. Investigations show that the Talwars were home till about 11.42 pm and Dr Rajesh Talwar was indeed on the computer surfing the Net, as he has claimed. But he and his wife left their Jalvayu Vihar house in Noida thereafter, for a party hosted by their high- profile friends at an upscale South Delhi hotel. Sources in the investigating agency say they have checked the hotel’s records and found that over a dozen rooms were booked for the party on the night of May 15. The sleuths zeroed in on the hotel after they found concrete evidence to suggest that the Talwar couple had left their flat soon after midnight on May 15 and returned around 5am the next day. Arushi, who had dinner with her family the night before, was murdered when her parents were away. So was Hemraj. His body dumped on the terrace. But if that’s so, the question that comes to mind is why does Dr Talwar continue to languish in prison for over a month? That’s because the CBI has reasons to believe that Dr Talwar has been withholding important case details and perhaps had a hand in destroying evidence related to the murders. The sources say the Talwar couple has been persistently refusing to come clean on the May 15 party and has stonewalled every effort to extract details on what this get- together was about and who were present there. This, the sleuths say, is curious. It is entirely possible that the motive behind the murders is hidden here. The line that the couple has thus far taken is that they were at home and had slept through the twin murders. But when quizzed about the party, both Talwar and his wife have been dodging a response. Repeated polygraph tests, too, haven’t helped. In fact, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar have undergone two lie- detector tests each. They have come up with conflicting statements on the sequence of events on May 15- 16 during each of these sessions. “It is possible that they have been shying away from sharing the details of the party to save their reputation. Also, their friends present there might have pressured the couple to clamp up,” aCBI source said. This explains the CBI’s constant crib also in court that the Talwars weren’t cooperating with the probe. Another missing link in the case is Arushi’s mobile phone. The phone, missing since the night of the murder, could hold the murder motive. It is possible that the murdered 14- year- old could have used it to shoot some pictures which Krishna, Dr Talwar’s compounder, and Rajkumar, Dr Anita Durani’s help, was trying to get their hands on. The phone could have come in handy to blackmail Dr Talwar’s influential friends. The other hypothesis the investigators are working on relates to some of Dr Talwar’s influential friends and acquaintances commissioning the domestic helps to obtain Arushi’s mobile phone, which could have contained some photographs of particular interest to them. The investigators have forensic evidence to suggest that Arushi’s assailants had afree run at the Talwars’ Jalvayu Vihar flat on the night of May 15. The outer face of the door to the girl’s room had blood stains implying it was left ajar when she was being murdered. “It’s not possible that the killers, when they struck, left the door open. Had the parents been at home, they would have been only a few feet away in the adjoining room. The spot where Hemraj’s body was found on the terrace was directly above the Talwars’ bedroom. Had they been in their room they would have heard a man struggling to save himself from his killers. All the more so because there is enough evidence to suggest Hemraj had grappled with his assailants,” the CBI officer said. Their behaviour when the maid came around 6am on May 16 too was suspicious. The couple had labelled Hemraj the killer even without having checked his room or looking for him on the terrace. The theory that the Talwars returned home only at 5am on May 16 gains currency also because the terrace door was found locked and CBI feels that Dr Talwar had put that lock after discovering Hemraj’s body. “If the killers, as we believe, used the terrace to flee after murdering Arushi and Hemraj, then who locked the door of the terrace where Hemraj’s body lay for almost 36 hours before it was discovered?” he added. The court, while dismissing Dr Talwar’s bail plea, had wondered why the doctor hadn’t searched his terrace even though he had labelled Hemraj as Arushi’s killer on May 16. The sequence of events leading to the discovery of the body suggest that the Talwars had left for Hardwar to conduct Arushi’s last rites ashort while before K. K. Gautam, a former UP Police officer, landed up at their residence to offer condolences. The CBI seems of the view that the discovery of Hemraj’s body on the morning of May 17 could have been orchestrated. “Dinesh Talwar, Dr Rajesh’s brother, was not shocked when he saw the body after the police team broke open the terrace door. The Talwar couple had also refused to cut short their journey and identify Hemraj’s body,” he said. But who murdered Arushi and Hemraj and why? The CBI says the answer to this lies in the arrest of Krishna and Rajkumar. Another domestic help of the Talwars’ neighbour, Vijay Mandal, is being subjected to scientific tests and could be arrested soon. Krishna’s confession before the CBI that he took a khukri to the Talwar flat on the night of the Arushi-Hemraj twin murder is important. Rajkumar has confessed to his deep involvement in the twin killings and that he had destroyed Arushi’s mobile phone. Krishna, during his narco test earlier, had said Rajkumar had “eyed” Arushi and tried to sexually assault her before the murders.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Scientific tests cost CBI in Aarushi case
MICS-India by shekhar Kulshreshtha
July 23, 2008 19:05 IST
The Central Bureau of Investigation has finally managed to crack the Noida murder case. Although the CBI has received vital information through the scientific tests conducted on the various suspects, the agency will take some time to put together the evidence and submit it for the trial.
Arun Kumar, joint director of the investigating agency, recently admitted during a media conference that a series of tests had been conducted on Rajkumar, Dr Rajesh Talwar, Krishna and Vijay Mandal at the Forensic Sciences Laboratories in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. All the tests conducted at these laboratories had remained inconclusive, he told the media.
The CBI was hoping for a breakthrough during the tests conducted on Rajkumar. However, the Brain Electronic Oscillation Signature tests conducted on him failed.
Arun Kumar said that the tests at Ahmedabad were unsatisfactory and Rajkumar did not even slip into a trance, which is an essential condition to conduct a narco analysis test.
Rajkumar gave various confusing statements to the police, which added to the prevailing uncertainty in the case. The CBI had no choice but to continue seeking extension of Dr Talwar's remand.
Arun Kumar also said that the tests initially conducted on Krishna at Mumbai did not yield any result and hence they had to take him to Bengaluru for more tests.
The CBI had to cough up a considerable amount of money to conduct the tests. The agency had to pay Rs 40,000 for each test, except the tests in Bengaluru. The FSL in Bengaluru, which used to conduct the tests for a nominal Rs 200, increased the fee to Rs 2,000 recently, following a directive by the Karnataka government.
The FSL at Ahmedabad, which conducts the Brain Electrical Oscillation, has drawn severe criticism from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. A MHA letter states that the tests carried out at the Ahmedabad FSL shows that there has been a 300 per cent error when the tests were conducted.
According to sources, the Brain Electrical Oscillation test, which was developed by a Bengaluru based scientist, has proven to be erroneous and inconclusive.
A committee appointed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs visited the laboratory at Ahmedabad recently and found that the test was full of errors.
The report submitted by the MHA also recommends that the test should not be conducted and used for forensic investigations. In spite of the MHA's recommendations, the CBI subjected Rajkumar to this test and the FSL continues to use this method.
SC cautions media on Aarushi murder case reporting
July 23, 2008 21:58 IST
MICS-India By shekhar Kulshreshtha
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the media to exercise caution in reporting or telecasting matters relating to the sensational twin murder involving teenager Aarushi and her domestic help Hemraj.
A bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Markandeya Katju directed that the media should report the issue with objectivity so as not to cause any prejudice to the reputation of the teenager's family and friends.
The bench order came while posting for August 18, a public interest petition filed by Surat Singh, a practising advocate, seeking a series of directions to protect the reputation of the Aarushi Talwar's family.
Singh alleged the family's reputation has been maligned by the media and the police and sought action against the investigators keeping the teenager's father in custody for 50 days before declaring him innocent.
Besides the Union Home Ministry, Ministry of Law and Justice, Information& Broadcasting Ministry, Central Bureau of Investigation, and the Uttar Pradesh police, the public interest litigation has arrayed media organisations, including newspapers and TV channels, as respondents before the court.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Breaking noose
New Delhi, July 17, 2008
On national networks, TV anchors and editors Deepak Chaurasia and Ashutosh are clear: the media have nothing to apologise about in the Rajesh Talwar case. Now that the doctor, once accused of murdering his daughter, is out on bail for lack of evidence, you’d imagine that he’s trying to pick up the pieces of his life and get on with it. No such luck. The murder of Aarushi Talwar continues to make news. On the day of Dr Talwar’s release, more than a hundred camera crews waited outside jail, followed his car to the temple where he and his wife went to pray and then set up camp outside his father-in-law’s house.
It’s been high season for the media for the past two months since 14-year-old Aarushi and the family’s servant, Hemraj, were found murdered in Noida. In the days that Dr Talwar was in jail, charges of sexual aberrations, intimate, personal details (much of it baseless), SMSes received and sent, and emails between Aarushi and her parents have flown fast and furious. Nothing has been sacrosanct — though some newspapers and channels did restrain themselves from publishing the more salacious leaks. Others, however, did away with such niceties. If one channel ran an MMS that purported to show Aarushi undressing in the presence of an unknown man (it was not Aarushi), others had anchors painting their hands red as they spoke solemnly about the “khooni baap”.
This sort of coverage led to some introspection. One channel removed its OB van from outside the Talwar residence, although temporarily. But it was not enough. Just days before Dr Talwar’s release, at least one newspaper and a couple of channels chose to run a story that claimed that the Talwars were at a party in a hotel, where 12 rooms had been booked, on the night Aarushi was murdered. The story was denied the next day by Nupur Talwar and the CBI but the damage had been done.
On Barkha Dutt’s We the People, Ashutosh, Managing Editor of IBN 7, clarified that his channel was not guilty of the more lurid reporting. Fair enough. But in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case one thing is clear: nobody — English or Hindi, tabloid or broadsheet, print or TV — has come out smelling of roses.
Ashutosh and Star News’ Chaurasia point out proudly that it was the media that focused attention on the ‘Jessica Lall’ and ‘Nitish Katara’ murder cases. And it was media attention in the Aarushi case that resulted in the investigation being moved to the CBI. Point taken. So, what of the thousands of innocent people languishing in jail, who are not People Like Us? Who will tell their story? And, more important, is there a market for it?
Public memory tends to be short. And the media's collective memory is sometimes just as brief. Only two months ago, the media seemed convinced enough of Dr Talwar’s guilt to go and get sound bytes from young girls on whether they felt safe in the presence of their fathers. Today, the trio of Krishna, Ram Kumar and Vijay Mandal — the new accused — stand just as guilty.
There is some talk about defamation suits against the police and the media. But it’s early days yet. I’m not sure that the Talwars, already traumatised, want to go to the courts for prolonged litigation.
So, what happens now? In the months to come, the Aarushi case will fade from public memory. Till that happens there will be much hand-wringing in the media about its role and responsibility. Politicians will bleat and shed tears about the role of police and media. There will be some talk about setting up self-regulation mechanisms and ombudsmen. But in the end, self-regulation always fails because there will always be rogue channels and papers who’ll defy norms.
The Talwars can never get their life or reputation back. But an apology by the media that has wronged them is at least a beginning.
Murder whodunnit grips India's middle-class
A young girl's throat is slit in her bedroom. A servant is also found dead nearby. The dentist father is arrested, injected with a "truth serum", held for 50 days and then released. The murder weapon has still to be found.
India is gripped by a murder whodunnit that has highlighted its bumbling police, aggressive media and a
deep-seated unease among the Asian giant's newly rich about household servants amid increasing numbers of crimes in its cities.
Rajesh Talwar returns home
Home again: Dr Rajesh Talwar and wife Nupur Talwar, parents of slain teenager Aarushi, at
their Noida residence. Rajesh Talwar, the key suspect in the Noida double murder case, was on Saturday released from jail. See video: Dr Talwar walks free
Aarushi murder case: Timeline
| MICS- India Bureau by shekhar kulshreshtha The sequence of events following Aarushi- Hemraj double murder case: |     |
Of Sobhraj, CBI and the Aarushi murder case
Crime veteran Charles Sobhraj says the CBI probe into Aaurushi-Hemraj murder case in India was misdirected and real culprits were still out of frame
MICS - India
Published on July 17 ,2008 5:22:56 PM
By Shekhar kulshreshtha
Kathmandu: The working of premier investigating agency of India -Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a messy one and it was just trying to find a scapegoat by resorting to narco tests in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, crime veteran Charles Sobhraj said.
With his extensive knowledge of crimes, criminals and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Charles Sobhraj is offering CBI tips on 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar's murder, which rocked the India two months ago.
"Every crime has logic. To solve a crime, you have to study psychology and human behaviour," 64-year-old Sobhraj said.
Sobhraj, who had been behind bars in India in the 90s, says the CBI-conducted narco tests would not be accepted by any Indian court.
"CBI never took the permission of any court to administer the narco-tests, therefore, it is illegal" Sobhraj said.
Also, under Section 164 of the IPC, a confession is valid only when it is recorded before a magistrate, who has to be satisfied that it was not made under any coercion or inducement, he added.
"The drug Pentathol is used for these narco-tests. So the tests definitely fall under the category of inducement. Also, the effect of Pentathol is to make you very susceptible to suggestions. If your interrogator poses any question in a suggestive manner, under the influence of the drug you are likely to say what he wants you to say," Sobhraj said.
Under the influence of drugs, Rajkumar is recently reported to have told investigators that Krishna was humiliated by Aarushi's father and wanted to take revenge.
According to Sobhraj the CBI had detracted while investigating the twin murders and had focussed its attention on the two Nepali servants-Krishna and Rajkumar.
But the plot of the case suggests otherwise, he said.
The CBI probe was yet to fix the actual time of killing of Aarushi.
"The post mortem report says she was killed in the morning while her father says she was alive in the afternoon. It means till now, they have not been able to establish the actual time of death and are trying to juggle facts to fit the post mortem report," Sobhraj said.
Sobhraj feels the murder was committed by someone for whom it was his first crime. That is why the CBI is finding it difficult to catch him since the perpetrator would not have any previous record.
"I feel it could be a case of jealousy," he says. "It could be the result of rivalry between two boyfriends. But whoever it was must have been known to the girl and trusted by her."
The police's best hope would be if someone close to the' boyfriend murderer', who suspects something amiss, comes forward with information, Sobhraj said.
Aarushi was found dead May 16. The police initially named the Talwars' domestic help Hemraj as the prime suspect, but had to retract after his body was found the next day on the terrace of the house. Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar was arrested May 23 and police said he killed his daughter in a fit of rage as he objected to her alleged closeness with Hemraj.
A second arrest in the case was made June 13 when the CBI held Talwar's compounder Krishna. Later, they arrested Rajkumar, the domestic help of Aarushi's father's business partner. Krishna and Rajkumar, both Nepalis, were subjected to narcos tests.
Accordingly, he, Krishna and Hemraj went to Aaurushi's room on that fateful night in May, Rajkumar reportedly told CBI investigators after the recent test in Bangalore, which is being hailed as a breakthrough in the murder case.
He also reportedly said he attempted to rape Aarushi and when she resisted, Krishna slit her throat with a khukuri—the sharp dagger used in Nepal—to silence her.
Rajkumar also reportedly said that when Hemraj got cold feet and said he would tell Aarushi's father everything, they killed him.
Minister blasts Mayawati over Aarushi murder case
MICS - India - shekhar kulshreshtha
Published: July 17, 2008, 00:04
Published: July 17, 2008, 00:04
New Delhi: The murder of Noida teenager Aarushi Talwar became the new flashpoint between the Congress and Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday with a federal minister coming down heavily on state Chief Minister Mayawati for "politicising" the sensational murder case.
Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury expressed her "anguish and pain" over Mayawati's statement that the "Congress party has been politicising the Aarushi murder case on the pretext of showing sensitivity to the bereaved families."
"My reaction is that of great sadness. How sad it is that a woman chief minister thinks that a young girl's life is equal to politics. However, my reaction to the case comes as a mother, out of great pain and anguish. I only wish that Mayawati would know what it is to feel like that," Chowdhury said while reacting to Mayawati's remarks favouring a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder.
Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal, however, said the case was not "fit" for the CBI.
"The Aarushi murder case is not fit for a CBI enquiry. The Uttar Pradesh special task force is already probing the matter," he said in New Delhi
Mayawati, in a statement read out in Lucknow yesterday, flayed Chowdhury for "meddling" in the case and for issuing "irresponsible statements."
"They should stop petty politics in a matter that is so serious and sensitive," the chief minister maintained.
"Why is Mayawati so concerned about this case instead of worrying about law and order?" Chowdhury retorted.
Stab injuries
"She should be seeking answers from the Noida police. Is she trying to say that a police officer can get away with saying that the girl was 'as characterless as her father'?" the minister asked.
Aarushi, 15, a student of Delhi Public School was found dead on May 16 with her throat slit and multiple stab injuries on her face, chest and neck. The family's domestic help, Hemraj, 45, who the police initially named as the killer, was also found murdered on the terrace of the house the next day.
Aarushi's dentist father Rajesh Talwar was arrested May 23 for the murders.
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