Revision as of 19:05, 4 October 2015

3 different stories by Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal: Aarushi Talwar murder case; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India

The case: In brief

The Times of India Jul 05 2015

Aarushi judge wrote `verdict' even before defence finished argument

The twists and turns of this 2008 Noida double-murder case had the nation riveted for years. Exclusive excerpts from `Aarushi', an investigative book by journalist Avirook Sen who covered the trial

The apparently simple finding that the motive of the crime had been established perhaps hid behind it the grossest perversion. To establish that Rajesh Talwar had killed Aarushi and Hemraj because he saw them having sex in her room, one had to first prove that Hemraj was there. The source of this `motive' was M.S. Dahiya's report with its flawed assumption that Hemraj's blood was found on Aarushi's pillow. Dahiya and Kaul (the forensic scientist and the investigating officer), had stubbornly insisted that in a forwarding letter written by an officer called Dhankar, three days after its recovery on 1 June 2008, the pillow cover was described as being found in Aarushi's room.

Tanveer Ahmed Mir had allowed Dahiya to stand by his report and not challenged it on its premise. The source of the pillow cover bearing Hemraj's blood was proved in court over a year ago: the exhibit was displayed and its original tag, signed by CBI officers, read out. It was found on Hemraj's bed, in the servant's room.Not in Aarushi's bedroom.

This was perhaps the most critical piece of evidence in the prosecution's case, the missing keystone. If Hemraj's pillow cover had indeed been found in Aarushi's room, the case against the Talwars was solid.But it wasn't.

Judge Shyam Lal had watched these dramatic events unfold in his courtroom keenly the previous summer. In his judgement, while evaluating the forensic report on the pillow cover, Judge Shyam Lal added this line: `. . . it becomes abundantly clear that Hemraj's DNA has been found on the pillow cover which was recovered from the room of Aarushi as per letter dated 04.06.2008 of SP CBI.

`The difficulty was finding a typist.Because, you know, in Ghaziabad all typists are for Hindi only. Only one or two stenos are there who can type the judgements in English. We had to make special arrangements. In fact I was the one who typed the beginning personally . First ten pages.' The judgement was 210 pages, and although much of it was cut and pasted off other judgements, I was interested in how long it took to write.Ashutosh Yadav, who was extremely happy to have made his own contributions to the document, unwittingly let a secret out: `It took more than one month,' he said.

`So you had gone to Ghaziabad more than a month before to help out...?' `Yes, I was there,' said Ashutosh.

I took this information in, and did my best to appear deadpan. Because the facts were these: Judge Shyam Lal pronounced his judgement on 25 November 2013. Tanveer Ahmed Mir, counsel for the defence, began his final arguments on 24 October.Over the next two weeks he would argue on a total of 24 circumstances that he felt should lead to acquittal.Seven of these were major points. As Judge Shyam Lal and his son sat down to write the judgement, Mir had not even begun.

The Talwars and Mir had their own stenographer related problems and would submit the arguments in writing only around 10 November.(Their typist was also a kabab seller who had got busy with his food business in the festive season.) At each hearing Judge Shyam Lal earing Judge Shyam Lal would urge Mir to do two things: wrap up quickly and submit the written argu ments. As Mir soldi ered on, neither he nor the Talwars would have known the fruit lessness of their exer cise. Ashutosh was right, the guilty ver dict was already being worked on. Shyam Lal after a brief while mumbled: `No, no . . . about a fortnight, not a month.' But by then, his son had given too many details away: his trip to Ghaziabad, that he typed out the first ten pages himself as they tried to make special arrangements for a typist, the requirement for `good words' which took time.

The key issues

The Aarushi Talwar murder: Salient points; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Oct 01 2015

The Times of India, Oct 01 2015

Abhinav Garg & Neeraj Chauhan

Trampled evidence & a botched murder probe

Convictions in court usually bring a sense of justice and closure, even for the most heinous of crimes. But two years after dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court for the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder, questions continue to be raised on whether justice was delivered. With the Irrfan Khan-starrer `Talvar', inspired by the rer `Talvar', inspired by the twin murder case, releasing in theatres this week, TOI looks at the twists and turns the case has taken so far, and asks: Are there more in the offing? On the night of May 15-16, 2008, Aarushi Talwar, barely eight days short of her 14th birthday , was found dead in her bedroom with her throat slit in Noida's Jalvayu Vihar neighbourhood. The main suspect was family domestic help Hemraj, who was missing early morning.

The first twist came the next day , when Hemraj's putrefying body was found on the terrace, turning the case into a frenzied media event.There were more questions than answers. Could the Talwars have slept through the killings, as they claimed? Who else could have done it and what was the motive? Where was the murder weapon? Despite obvious gaps in the evidence, the Noida police wasted little time in claiming that Dr Rajesh Talwar was the killer. In an infamous press conference, then Inspector General of Police (Meerut range) Gurdarshan Singh introduced the honour killing hypothesis, saying Talwar committed the crime in a fit of rage after finding Aarushi in an “objectionable though not a compromising position“ with Hemraj.

Singh's theory met with outrage and led to his eventual transfer, with the police being blamed for a shambolic investigation. His second claim -even more sensational -that Aarushi had opposed her father's alleged relationship with a doctor colleague -opened up a seamy chapter of orgies that the Talwars were whispered to be indulging in behind the façade of regular middle-class lives. These rumours, with no evidence whatsoever, turned the case in the public's imagination.

Then entered the CBI, India's premier investigating agency , called in by then UP chief minister Mayawati, in the face of non-stop media scrutiny into the workings of the Noida police. The bu reau put one of its brightest officers, joint director Arun Kumar, on the job. Kumar claimed a breakthrough on the basis of “scientific evidence“, primarily narco-analysis test reports, and arrested three men -Talwar's compounder Krishna, and two domestic helps working in the neighbourhood, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. Talwar was released on July 11, 2008.

Based on a string of tests conducted on the new suspects, Kumar's team put together a sequence of events: Krishna and Rajkumar, after a drinking session in Hemraj's room, tried to molest Aarushi and in the melee, killed the girl with a khukri.Hemraj, who threatened to wake up the Talwars, was taken to the terrace and killed.The theory had its own consequences. Soon, stories appeared in the media that the servants were being framed because they were easy meat.

The story took another turn with the retirement of CBI chief Vijay Shanker and appointment of his successor, Ashwani Kumar, in August 2008. According to one version, the new chief refused permission to make Vijay Mandal an approver.Unable to build on its initial claim, CBI decided that a chargesheet will not be filed and the trio was released.

The case grabbed headlines once more when in September 2009, it emerged that Aarushi's vaginal swabs had been allegedly tampered with while the pathology report went missing. Ashwani Kumar handed over the probe to a new team led by joint director Javed Ahmed and then additional SP A G L Kaul. This is when the story turned once again. Kaul reviewed case dairies, checked hospital records and put the needle of suspicion back on the Talwars. Another narco test was conducted on the couple in February 2010, which again failed to indicate guilt.

But the wheel had clearly turned. Kaul claimed in court that he wanted to chargesheet the Talwars but was denied permission from the CBI top brass who recommended closing the case. So, on December 29, 2010, CBI, under a new director A P Singh, sought to end the case by filing a closure report even though it presented circumstantial evidence against the Talwars, with statements of 84 witnesses, documents and forensic reports. The parents approached the court challenging the closure report and demanding that the agency re-investigate the crime.

It was now the CBI's turn to be left surprised. Special CBI judge Preeti Singh rejected the closure report and summoned both parents as accused for murder and destruction of evidence. The court treated the closure report as a chargesheet under the CrPC. During the 19 months of trial, the dentist couple maintained that CBI's probe was “tainted and tailored“. They said the agency's charges showed “deliberate lapses“ in investigations besides “noticeable non-mentioning of material pieces of evidence“.

On November 25, 2013, the special CBI court sentenced the couple to life imprisonment and sent them to Dasna jail. Their appeal is pending before the Allahabad HC.There's more to come in the Aarushi murder saga. But irrespective of the final outcome, the twin murders will go down as a classic case of botched up investigations.