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.