MICS- INDIA - Shekhar kulshreshthaTHE NEWS is trickling in that Dr Talwar, the father of the murdered teenager Aarushi Talwar has been declared innocent by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). They have said in their latest press conference that since they have found no evidence against Dr Talwar and his wife, the court may take appropriate action in the case. In plain speak this means that the CBI will not be seeking any extension of the judicial custody of Dr Talwar. Now that the doctor is given the clean chit by the investigative agencies, it will be a big relief for his family, friends and supporters. He has spent his days in jail since May 23, when the police took him in custody as the main suspect. In the period since he has been viewed variously as the prime suspect, a person of interest to the investigators, a collaborator with other suspects in this gruesome murders and now finally as a person against whom the agencies have no proof.
Like the murder itself, this new development is also going to leave in its wake more questions than answers. If, indeed, there is no evidence against the man then what was it in the initial days of the investigations that led the police not only to take him into custody, but also to look upon him as the prime suspect?
If the sequence of news in the media, since that unfortunate day of the double murders of a young girl and the domestic helper Hemraj, is to be believed, Dr Talwar was taken into custody due to his own conflicting versions of what exactly happened the night before and the morning after the murder of Aarushi and Hemraj. If that were so, then what was it that the doctor was trying to hide? Extra marital relations, though frowned upon in our society, are not so serious a thing as to require the sacrifice of two lives. And the allegations about his affair with a colleague came out into the public domain anyway. These questions will linger on, unfortunately, regardless of what the final verdict is about Dr Talwar’s innocence or complicity.
It could simply be that this is case of two respectable, middle class, professionals finding themselves in the eye of the media hurricane under most tragic of circumstances and getting themselves embroiled in a tangle of suspicion and innuendo due to the sheer shock of it. Did their alleged hurry in disposing of Aarushi’s body and cleaning out her room etc stem from the bizarre circumstances they found themselves in? After all, there is no way a couple can ever be pre-prepared for a tragedy so big and so unexpected.
After all the parents of the missing Scottish girl Madeleine McCann, Gerry and Kate, were also termed the main suspects in the case of her disappearance, but now the Portuguese investigations have come to an end and there has been no evidence against the parents and they are now to be handed the police files on the case so they can go on with their own private investigations and the search for their daughter who has now been missing for more than a year.
In both the cases, the apparently dry eyes of the mothers in the face of the tragedies that had befallen them, was considered the most aggravating ‘evidence’ against them. If this couple now is declared innocent (as it is increasingly looking after the CBI press conference), it should force all of us to reconsider how we come to conclusions about the guilt or innocence of people. Did we err in judging simply by the appearances of the people involved or did the investigative agencies err so monumentally in the beginning that they led a whole nation down this path of trial by media and public?
The differences in the backgrounds of the Talwar family and the Noida police also seems to have played a role in jumping to conclusions by the police. They misinterpreted Aarushi’s email exchange with her parents due to its unfamiliarity with the language and manner of communication of young urban Indians. Moral judgments were drawn about the ‘loose’ life styles of the Talwars by a police force drawn from a different social background and a media hungry for salacious news bits.
It has emerged in the CBI’s press conference today (July 11) that all the allegations about DrTalwar’s affair with Dr Anita Durrani and about Aarushi being found in an objectionable situation were all started by Krishna (now the main suspect) himself and there was no corroborating evidence whatsoever at any point. This raises serious questions about the reasons for the police’s eagerness to fall for this diversionary tactic of Krishna. Based on his statements alone, a police officer of inspector general (IG) rank went public with accusations against the Talwars and the Durranis
Another issue is of how the socio-economic status of the victims and the suspects has played a role in how they are treated. While Aarushi’s supporters are many, there is no one really to actively seek justice in the case of Hemraj. He continues to be just a footnote in this mystery that has gripped the nation’s imagination for many months now. The list of domestic helpers, now being interrogated, is a long one now and Krishna’s (Dr Talwar’s compounder) family who were the only one to go public with their viewpoint has had a bruising brush with media so far. They came out in a desperate attempt to underscore his innocence, but the TV channels had a field day mocking them (especially the niece) when CBI came out with further accusations against Krishna.
Now that the CBI has come out with a detailed account of what transpired between the domestic helpers when they met in Hemraj’s room that fateful night, it is beginning to look like a case of an alcohol fuelled sequence of events that led from a possible attempted sexual assault on Aarushi to the death of both Aarushi and Hemraj.
Whatever maybe the outcome of the case, now, one thing is beginning to look clear. A gross injustice has been done to the Talwars due to the blundering ways of the Noida police. The question now is -who is going to repair the many lives that have been irreparably shattered due to this trial by innuendo and inept investigation?
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