CBI closes Aarushi double murder case

No evidence available to pursue matter, agency informs court

After a detailed two-and-a-half-year probe marked by botched up investigations, the CBI said it found it impossible to reach any plausible conclusion because of lack of concrete forensic evidence at the crime scene to nail the culprits. Hence, it decided to close the case.

The designated court will fix the date for taking cognizance of the closure report filed by the CBI. If accepted, the three suspects—Raj Kumar, Vijay Mandal and Krishna—will be set free. They are out on bail now. The Talwar family has decided to file an appeal against the closure report.

Parents outraged

The CBI move sparked outrage among Aarushi’s parents—a dentist couple—and her family. “I am completely shocked. We tried everything. We underwent all tests so that there is no scope for any speculation and despite this filing of closure report by the CBI is shocking,” Aarushi’s mother Nupur said.

Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar said he is completely devastated and wondered what prompted the CBI to close the case. When asked whether the family will file an appeal in the case, their lawyer Rebbecca John said, “Of course. We will.”

Aarushi Talwar was murdered in the intervening night of May15-16 in 2008 along with their domestic help Hemraj, whose body lay on the terrace. Forensic experts involved in the case said that crucial evidence had been destroyed allegedly by the probe agency and accused the CBI of cover-up.

Evidence tampered

“They had sent us some blood-stained bedsheets from the bed of the victims. Using that and the blood of the parents of the Aarushi, we were able to establish that the blood stains were indeed that of the girl. We were also sent some slides which were the vaginal swabs taken from the victim to check whether there was sexual assault. What came out was surprising that they were not of the victim. It has been very clear that a swap has taken place and that was something we had communicated to the CBI. That indicated that there were some interests in ensuring that evidence has been tampered with,” said Dr J Gowrishankar, Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad.

Doubts over probe

The forensic expert also raised doubts over the investigations handled first by the Uttar Pradesh police before handing it over to the CBI.

The Uttar Pradesh Police which started investigations in the murder teenaged daughter of dentist couple—Rajesh and Nupur Talwar—suspected domestic help Hemraj for the killing and dispatched a team to Nepal to nab him. But these claims fell flat as an acquaintance of Talwars found a trail of blood to terrace next day where Hemraj’s body was found lying in a dried blood.

The shoddy probe by the Police evoked sharp media frenzy and triggered demands of the CBI probe as the state police levelled allegations of honour killing against the father and arrested him for the murder of his daughter Aarushi and domestic Hemraj.

The Centre which was reluctant to hand over probe to the CBI gave its nod after a fortnight and investigations started under Joint Director Arun Kumar on June 1, 2008. Immediately, a 25-member team with senior forensic officials was rushed to the Jalwayu Vihar residence which was the crime scene.

No lead

The CBI arrested domestic help of Talwar’s compounder Krishna, domestic help of their neighbour Mandal and Rajkumar, the domestic help of Durranis— friends of Talwars.

All the five suspects, including the parents of Aarushi, were subjected to detailed questioning, narco-analysis, brain mapping and lie detector test but the agency could not find any lead which could help them in concluding the case.

On July 11, 2008, the CBI claimed that there was not even a shred of evidence to suggest that the murder was committed by the parents. Subsequently, the father was released on bail after remaining in jail for 57 days.

The CBI, which was almost certain to chargesheet the three arrested helps, decided to carry out further probe after the new CBI Director, Ashwani Kumar, took charge and constituted a fresh team to look into the case.

During the investigations, the new team pointed out several times to forensic experts about the distorted finger and foot prints at the crime scene in the case. A year later, the CBI claimed that the DNA samples of Aarushi were tampered with or not taken properly by the examining doctor when the case was in the domain of local police.