Dress rehearsal for more muck

The Aarushi Talwar murder case has become a labyrinthine maze of claims and counterclaims, with the CBI and the Talwars at the opposite sides of the tug of war over what really happened. While the CBI has now alleged that Aarushi’s was an honour killing by her parents, Nupur and Rajesh Talwar, who used a knife and a gold club to murder their daughter, along with the domestic help Hemraj, the beleaguered parents of the deceased 14-year-old maintain their original stance of being completely innocent. Indeed the whodunit saga that is unfolding on national television has become murkier with every passing day, as nothing has been established beyond a straw of doubt – regarding both the motive and method of the double murder. In fact, the CBI’s latest allegations say that the Talwars had actually dressed up the crime scene, tampering with both Aarushi’s body and the murder site. That they were both doctors worked in their favour to change the forensics substantially enough so that till date nothing concrete has been found that could convincingly close the case. The sensational murders have been making national headlines ever since, but have also been baffling the nation’s collective psyche, which saw an innocent girl being brutally killed for reasons that still remain unexplained.

Several experts – whether forensic, medical or legal – have expressed reservations about the manner the CBI has handled the Talwar case, with the parents’ lives becoming a living hell after being targeted by the national media and becoming a subject of everyday persecution on television. Moreover, the social stigma that has become attached to the Talwars is also beyond belief. The Talwars have also asserted that the CBI has willfully ignored crucial evidence to pin the matter on them, a deliberate ploy to shield the actual perpetrators of the murders. Either way, what is at stake here is the life that has been lost and the blood that has been shed of the innocent Aarushi Talwar and her friend cum help Hemraj. Even though this case points towards the entrenched prejudices against girl children and the hypocrisies of the educated classes when it comes to the bodies and sexualities of their daughters, what must not be forgotten is that the Talwars are innocent in the eyes of law until they are proven guilty beyond a fraction of doubt. Unlike many other instances, we hope the ‘manufactured impasse’ would eventually dissolve and let justice take its course. We also hope that this mystery whodunit doesn’t become an extended quandary, which either party, the probers and the probed, is deliberately perpetuating in order to save themselves from greater national shame.