Aarushi Talwar, the 14 year old student of class 9 at DPS Noida and daughter of a successful dentist couple Dr. Rajesh and Dr. Nupur Talwar, was found murdered with her throat slit on the morning of 16th May’08 in her bedroom at home. The body was discovered in the early hours of the morning by her parents.
Investigation by UP Police (16th May’08 to 31st May’08)
- On 16th May, Dr. Rajesh Talwar in his written complaint alleged that his servant Hemraj had killed his daughter on the night of 15/16th May’08 as Hemraj was also missing.
- However the body of Hemraj, servant of Dr. Rajesh Talwar who was alleged to have killed Aarushi, was recovered on 17th May’08 from the terrace of the residence of Dr. Rajesh Talwar.
- The police did a shoddy job of the investigation as they did not bother to either seal the scene of the crime or restrict entry of visitors including the media.
24 sets offingerprints were taken from the scene of crime including the whiskey bottle found in the Talwar residence, but 22 of them were not found to be fit for comparison. After destroying vital evidence the UP police left little hope for nailing the accused. - Despite not having a shred of evidence the UP police arrested Dr Rajesh Talwar on 23rdMay’08 for the double murder. Alleging framing by the UP police, the family sought transfer of the case to CBI.
Investigation by 1st Team of CBI (31st May’08 to August 2009)
- The CBI team headed by Joint Director Mr. Arun Kumar (Investigating Officer, Mr Vijay Kumar) interrogated Dr. Rajesh Talwar in detail and carried out an extensive scientific investigation including a sound test at night to confirm that sounds from Aarushi’s bedroom were not likely to be heard in the parents’ bedroom. Based on this the CBI submitted to the court that, “The investigation and scientific examination results could not connect accused Rajesh Talwar with the crime and that in view of the above circumstances further judicial custody remand of accused Rajesh Talwar was not required in the interest of justice.” The Hon’ble Court therefore granted bail to Dr. Rajesh Talwar on 11th July’08.
- Dr Rajesh Talwar’s Nepalese compounder Krishna was arrested by CBI on 13th June 2008. The arrest followed polygraph test, Brain Mapping and Narco Analysis test at Forensic Science laboratory (FSL), Bangalore the day before. Based on similar scientific tests, Rajkumar (servant of Durranis’ who are friends of Talwars’) and Vijay Mandal (servant of Talwars’ neighbors) were also arrested. The servants admitted to committing the crime in their narco.
- The servants were released on statutory bail by the magistrate on 12th September’08 since the CBI failed to file the chargesheet within 90 days. The learned Public Prosecutor made a statement that except for lie detector test, brain mapping and narco analysis no other evidence was found against the servants. (Not surprising, as UP police had destroyed all evidence on day 1 of the murder).
Investigation by 2nd Team of CBI (10th September’09 till Filing of Closure Report)
- The first CBI team was changed on 10th September’09 for no apparent reasons and a fresh team was constituted. The team was headed by Mr. Javed Ahmed, Joint Director, and Shri AGL Kaul, Addl SP was the investigating officer.
- After the constitution of the 2nd team, several material shifts were made in the investigation. Material additions were made in the post mortem statements given by Dr Sunil Dohre(the doctor who conducted the post mortem) regarding Aarushi’s private parts, which are not mentioned in the PM report.
- Several new theories were propounded including killing of both the victims with golf sticks and a scalpel, despite the fact that no blood or DNA could be found on the golf sticks (Dr Talwar used to sometimes play golf till a few months before the murder and therefore a golf set was lying at home). No scalpel has been found which is supposed to have inflicted the fatal injury.
- Though no proof exists regarding these theories, the media literally lapped up these theories and in turn sensationalized them. This and various other lies were fed to the media by the CBI. The public perception which was already negative due to the actions taken by the UP police, was made even more so. Perhaps this was responsible for the string of negative judgements which were subsequently given by various courts to the Talwars.
- Though the first round of scientific tests did not reveal any involvement of the parents in this double murder, the 2nd team made them undergo a narcoanalysis test. Conclusion of the narcoanalysis report dated 02/2010 by the Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Gandhi Nagar: “Dr Rajesh Talwar and Dr Nupur Talwar do not indicate their participation related to the crime and the sequence in which the crime has taken place in their premises. Neither the information indicated their awareness about the twin murder of Aarushi and Hemraj.” Despite these leads available from the investigation of the parents, the CBI maliciously hid these documents from the summoning magistrate and made unsubstantiated insinuations against the parents.
- Despite the fact that scientific tests of the servants conducted by the 1st team had indicated their involvement, they were not only not subjected to the tests again but were declared innocent without further investigation provided on record.
Events after filing of the Closure Report by 2nd team of CBI on 29thDecember 2010
- A closure report was submitted before the Court of the Special Judicial Magistrate Ghaziabad, that the case maybe allowed to be closed due to insufficient evidence. A doubt was however left by the CBI that it was the parents who had committed the crime!
- The parents vehemently opposed the closure report since they definitely wanted the killers of their daughter to be caught and justice to be delivered. They filed a protest petition on 25th January’11 pointing out various instances reflecting the inconsistency in the line of investigation between the 1st and 2nd teams of CBI. They challenged the malafide inferences made by the CBI, failure to investigate the case scientifically and specific failure to conduct Touch DNA on all exhibits available with the CBI.
- On 9th February’11 the court rejected the closure report and summoned Drs Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.
- Talwars challenged the summoning order in Allahabad High Court. High court dismissed the order following which on 18th March’11, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order.
- 6th January ’12 – Supreme Court dismissed Nupur’s plea, and asked the parents to face trial so that the evidence which supposedly shows their involvement in the crime can be thoroughly examined.
- 11th April’12 – Special CBI court, Ghaziabad issued a non-bailable warrant against Nupur Talwar as she failed to appear before the court. This was despite the fact that Nupur was present in the Supreme Court for submitting an affidavit at that time.
- 13th April’12 – Nupur appears before the Supreme Court during the hearing on her Special Leave Petition. The Supreme Court takes an undertaking from the CBI that it would not arrest her till the hearing of her petition in the Supreme Court.
- 27th April’12 – Nupur’s petition is heard in Supreme Court during which she gives undertaking to surrender in the Ghaziabad court on 30th April. The court orders her bail application to be heard expeditiously.
- 30th April’12 – Nupur Talwar surrenders in Ghaziabad court where her trial is set to begin. Her bail application is rejected and she is sent to judicial custody. Since then she is lodged in Dasna Jail, Ghaziabad.
- 25th May 12 – Both Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were charged by the Ghaziabad court with murder, destruction of evidence and conspiracy.
- 4th June’12 – Trial begins.
- 7th June’12 – In a big setback to Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, the Supreme Court dismissed their review petition to quash the summons of the magistrate and say that the evidence can only be evaluated in the trial.
- June 2012 – Trial begins
- 25th November’13 – Rajesh and Nupur convicted in Ghaziabad Court. Presently they are lodged in Dasna Jail and awaiting appeal in Allahabad High Court