Justice Delayed, Denied and Destroyed in Aarushi Murder Case
There is enough evidence to prove that the investigation of the Aarushi-Hemraj murder was compromised.
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Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar opened to packed theatres last Friday, reopening the debate around the famously botched Arushi-Hemraj investigation. In keeping with Talvar and the discussions it has reignited, The Quint revisits the investigation.
That the Aarushi murder was poorly investigated is not news. The UP police were famously and hopelessly incompetent. As if this wasn’t enough, the sketchy circumstances and scandal surrounding the murder meant that the Indian media had several field days.
Arun Kumar Believed Rajesh and Nupur Were Innocent
When CBI’s Arun Kumar spoke to The Quint for the first time, one thing was clear – he believed that the Talwars were innocent. He may have been circumspect, but he was firm. He was the Joint Director of the CBI at the time.
The UP police’s investigation was a joke and a sham. Evidence was trampled upon and it was impossible to conduct forensic tests two weeks after the crime had been committed.
The CBI concluded that it wasn’t possible to hear noises in Aarushi’s room when both air conditioners in Nupur and Rajesh’s room were turned on. The narco tests revealed nothing. All the evidence suggested that the Talwars were telling the truth. The court, however, chose to ignore all this.
The UP police concluded, with insufficient evidence from a suspicious source, that Hemraj and Aarushi were involved. Even after his body was found, the police persisted with their theory that the two were sexually involved.
Case Against The Talwars Was a Vindictive Witch-hunt
Tanveer Ahmed Mir, the Talwars’ lawyer, says that the case against them was the result of a decisive and vindictive witch-hunt. The Chief Investigating Officer of the CBI, AGL Kaul pursued the Talwars aggressively. He refused to entertain the theory that the Talwars were innocent and threatened them when they refused to confess to the crime.
Kaul has handled several cases in the past similarly, and is guilty of intimidating witnesses. To make matters worse, the Talwars were up against a judge who didn’t believe in acquittals. Inconsistencies in the investigation were not taken into account, and a judgement was pronounced despite inconclusive evidence.
The maid, Bharti Mandal confessed in three consecutive statements that she had been tutored, and her statement changed. This wasn’t all. The medical examination was compromised. Dr Dohre, who examined Aarushi’s body during the post-mortem, had initially declared NAD (No Abnormality Detected) in the report. Later on, however, he said that her vaginal orifice was so wide, he could see her cervix. According to gynaecologist Dr Urmil Sharma, this is an impossible exaggeration.
The forensic analysis of a pillowcase with Hemraj’s blood on it, evidence of Krishna’s guilt, was tampered with. What becomes clear is that the people conducting the investigation were out to convict the Talwars, and at any cost.
No Dearth of Evidence of a Botched Investigation
As if this weren’t enough proof that the case must, at the very least, be revisited, Dr Vaya offers us more. A forensic psychologist, Vaya found that the Talwars “were not involved.” She was less sure about Rajkumar (the Talwars’ friends’ domestic help). Vijay Shankar, who was the Director of the CBI in 2008, does not believe that justice has been done. He said that the destruction of evidence began almost as soon as the investigation began.
Nalini Singh, a senior journalist and Managing Director of the TV channel Nepal 1 confirmed the presence of Rajkumar, Vijay Mandal and Krishna (three domestic helps) in the Talwar home.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar are the prime accused in the murder of their daughter Aarushi. The state has failed the Talwars, and has, by extension, failed us. What we are left with, instead, is the cynical understanding that the police is useless and that the courts are, in fact, corruptible and fallible.