Aarushi-Hemraj murder case: Magistrate appears as witness

In the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder, a magistrate on Wednesday appeared in a court here as a CBI witness and said he did not see any sign of grief on the faces of her parents the day after the May 16, 2008 incident.

Then joint magistrate Sanjay Chauhan appeared as the fourth witness before CBI special judge S Lal and said he did not talk to Rajesh and Nupur Talwar when he visited the murder spot on May 17 after a morning walk.

When defence counsel asked him how he could say the Talwars were not grief-stricken, the magistrate said he only observed from a distance.

The magistrate stated before the court that he visited the murder spot in a private capacity and did not discuss the issue with his seniors. He said he was merely a spectator at the spot and after a brief stay there, he went back to his home. Chauhan was questioned by the defence on the question whether he used to come daily for his morning walk from sector Gamma in Greater Noida to the sector 25 stadium in Noida, about 28 km away.

The magistrate answered in the positive and said he noticed movement of a lot of police vehicles and being a magistrate of the area he visited the scene.

When defence lawyer Vijay Pal Singh Rathi asked him if he maintained any record of coming 28 km from his house merely for morning walk, the magistrate said he used to come by his private car hence had no record.

After alleging contradictions in the cross examination and statement of the magistrate recorded before the court and before the investigating officer, Rathi submitted before the court that the witness was not reliable. The next hearing is on July 24.