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
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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

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.

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