Million dollar question: Did the Talwars do it?
16 May 2012 8:16 AM GMT
Did the parents kill Aarushi? Was it an honour killing? Was Noida police's investigation going in right direction? Was the then Meerut Range Inspector General of Police, Gurudarshan Singh, right in pointing fingers towards the illicit relationship between a high society teenage girl and a man in mid-40s as the murder motive?
Just five days short of the fourth anniversary of teenager Aarushi Talwar, her parents are facing trial in one of the most infamous and unsolved murder cases of the world. And these are the questions making rounds in the minds of residents of Jalvayur Vihar in Sector 25 of Noida. Five years ago, on 16 May 2008, these residents were greeted with the news of murder of the Delhi Public School (DPS) student in their neighbourhood. Not that these questions were limited to this colony alone. The case that was dragged on for five years seemed to have caught the imagination of the country. L-32 in Jalvayu Vihar has now become a 'haunted house' and a must-place to visit by 'crime tourists'.
Amid talks and speculations, now, the 'allegations' of Gurudarshan Singh are gaining importance even in the court. 'It's is a clear case of honour killing. Rajesh Talwar killed his daughter when he found her in a compromising position with his servant and then the servant was also killed. His wife Nupur helped him in cleaning the room and destroying the evidences,' said R K Saini, the CBI counsel in the case in Ghaziabad court. The other servants of the household - Krishna, Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar – who were arrested by the CBI were freed one by one and the investigation has ended exactly where it had started.
'Rajesh Talwar murdered his daughter after finding her in an 'objectionable but not compromising' position,' Gurudarshan Singh had said in a press conference in Noida on 23 May 2012 after the arrest of Rajesh Talwar. This statement was seen as 'offensive' among social activists, feminists and child rights activists. It even rocked the parliamentarians, which in turn resorted to the shunting of Singh, Satish Ganesh SSP of Noida and some other senior officials. The case was then transferred to the CBI after one week. But the voices from all quarters against the statements suggesting illicit relationship between Aarushi and Hemraj seemed to have died down. They now seemed to be convinced with the story. 'As the parents are the main suspects, the initial findings of Noida police seemed to be correct word by word. The story of Singh seems to be correct,' said Rajneesh, a resident of Jalvayu Vihar.
On 16 May 2008, Aarushi Talwar, a 14-year-old Class IX student of Delhi Public School in Noida, and the only child of a successful dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in her parents' home at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Suspicion initially fell on the family's live-in manservant Hemraj, who was missing. Noida police declared him the prime suspect. However, the following day, following a trail of blood in the Talwar home, police found the dead body of Hemraj on the terrace. After a disorganised investigation, the police arrested Rajesh Talwar, the father of the deceased girl on 23 May 2008, charging him with having committed the double murder. He confessed to killing Aarushi and Hemraj to the police on the night of his arrest, but later retracted his confession. His wife, Nupur Talwar (Arushi Talwar's mother, who runs a dental clinic), accused the Noida police of framing him and requested the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to transfer the case to the CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation into the murders of Aarushi and Hemraj on 1 June 2008, forming a 25-member team in an attempt to crack the case. Soon after the CBI took over the case, the then UP Chief Minister Mayawati gave transfer orders to senior police officers who were part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that had previously been in charge of the investigation, including the Noida Senior Superintendent of Police, Satish Ganesh, and Meerut Inspector General, Gurdarshan Singh. CBI investigators charged the Noida police with a shoddy investigation, which, it claimed, had resulted in the destruction of 90 per cent of the evidence in the crime scene.
Just five days short of the fourth anniversary of teenager Aarushi Talwar, her parents are facing trial in one of the most infamous and unsolved murder cases of the world. And these are the questions making rounds in the minds of residents of Jalvayur Vihar in Sector 25 of Noida. Five years ago, on 16 May 2008, these residents were greeted with the news of murder of the Delhi Public School (DPS) student in their neighbourhood. Not that these questions were limited to this colony alone. The case that was dragged on for five years seemed to have caught the imagination of the country. L-32 in Jalvayu Vihar has now become a 'haunted house' and a must-place to visit by 'crime tourists'.
Amid talks and speculations, now, the 'allegations' of Gurudarshan Singh are gaining importance even in the court. 'It's is a clear case of honour killing. Rajesh Talwar killed his daughter when he found her in a compromising position with his servant and then the servant was also killed. His wife Nupur helped him in cleaning the room and destroying the evidences,' said R K Saini, the CBI counsel in the case in Ghaziabad court. The other servants of the household - Krishna, Vijay Mandal and Rajkumar – who were arrested by the CBI were freed one by one and the investigation has ended exactly where it had started.
'Rajesh Talwar murdered his daughter after finding her in an 'objectionable but not compromising' position,' Gurudarshan Singh had said in a press conference in Noida on 23 May 2012 after the arrest of Rajesh Talwar. This statement was seen as 'offensive' among social activists, feminists and child rights activists. It even rocked the parliamentarians, which in turn resorted to the shunting of Singh, Satish Ganesh SSP of Noida and some other senior officials. The case was then transferred to the CBI after one week. But the voices from all quarters against the statements suggesting illicit relationship between Aarushi and Hemraj seemed to have died down. They now seemed to be convinced with the story. 'As the parents are the main suspects, the initial findings of Noida police seemed to be correct word by word. The story of Singh seems to be correct,' said Rajneesh, a resident of Jalvayu Vihar.
On 16 May 2008, Aarushi Talwar, a 14-year-old Class IX student of Delhi Public School in Noida, and the only child of a successful dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in her parents' home at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Suspicion initially fell on the family's live-in manservant Hemraj, who was missing. Noida police declared him the prime suspect. However, the following day, following a trail of blood in the Talwar home, police found the dead body of Hemraj on the terrace. After a disorganised investigation, the police arrested Rajesh Talwar, the father of the deceased girl on 23 May 2008, charging him with having committed the double murder. He confessed to killing Aarushi and Hemraj to the police on the night of his arrest, but later retracted his confession. His wife, Nupur Talwar (Arushi Talwar's mother, who runs a dental clinic), accused the Noida police of framing him and requested the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to transfer the case to the CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation into the murders of Aarushi and Hemraj on 1 June 2008, forming a 25-member team in an attempt to crack the case. Soon after the CBI took over the case, the then UP Chief Minister Mayawati gave transfer orders to senior police officers who were part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that had previously been in charge of the investigation, including the Noida Senior Superintendent of Police, Satish Ganesh, and Meerut Inspector General, Gurdarshan Singh. CBI investigators charged the Noida police with a shoddy investigation, which, it claimed, had resulted in the destruction of 90 per cent of the evidence in the crime scene.
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