No probe on whether Talwars were drugged

Experts who conducted the narco analysis test of Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, convicted for the murder of their daughter Aarushi, wanted investigators to probe whether the couple were drugged on the night of the incident, but it was not done.

The book “Aarushi”, written by journalist Avirook Sen, is a vociferous defence of the Talwars and seeks to put the blame on the three servants hailing from Nepal who were working in the neighbourhood.

Aarushi (14) was found murdered in her residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, a suburb of Delhi, on May 16, 2008, while her parents were asleep in another room.

Adding to the curious tale, the body of their servant Hemraj, who the Talwars suspected was behind the murder, was found on the terrace of their building a day later.

Claiming that there were many gaps in investigations that finally led to the conviction of the Talwars while the role of three domestic helps were not properly acknowledged, the book said that the narco analysts were of the view the servants were into deception during tests while Nupur was transparent.

Lawyers of the servants, who were exonerated after CBI changed its stand on them and charged Talwars for the murders, could not be contacted for their comments.
The book said the narco analysis of the Talwars had concluded that no information regarding their participation in the crimes was revealed.

After a polygraph test earlier, Dr S L Vaya, the then head of Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar where the lie detector tests, brain mapping and narco analysis of the suspects were done, did not feel the need to send the Talwars for narco analysis.

“She told me the Talwars clearly appeared innocent and the servants guilty,” Sen quoted Dr Vaya as saying. Dr Vaya did not feel the need to put the Talwars through the “invasive” narco analysis test, particularly because Rajesh was on anti-depressants and Nupur was on medication to help conceive another child.

Though then main CBI investigator Arun Kumar accepted this version, the CBI stand changed when he was removed from the probe team and another team took over.

To buttress his claim that the Talwars are innocent, the writer said that Nupur had talked about her relationship with a close friend and this was interpreted as her honest approach.

“Narco analysis cannot determine if what Nupur said was true or false, only that she was honest about her feelings. Scientists call this transparency, it is common in narco narration. In the servants, narco analysis, to put this in perspective, the scientists found no transparency at all and repeated attempts at deception,” Sen wrote.