The Aarushi Talwar – Hemraj double murder case has been hanging fire from 2008 when the news first came in public eye. With a hugely botched up case and their acquittal it is anybody’s guess who actually committed the murder. The verdict that renders the couple not guilty also raises serious questions on the probe agencies of the country and the role media plays in such cases. To a certain extent even the police in Noida will be scrutinized from hereon.
For the Talwars it is not just a case of from riches to rags but also one where they have spent several years in jail. The point here is that if not the Talwars who committed the double murder. A question still unanswered as the court says that evidence is not enough.
Nupur and Rajesh have till today served their sentence in Ghaziabad’s Dasna jail.
The case primarily refers to the killing of a 13 year old Aarushi Talwar and 45 year old domestic help who died in the house of the Talwar’s in Noida under mysterious circumstances.
Aarushi Talwar was a 13-year-old student at Delhi Public School. Daughter of a dentist couple, Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar she along with parents lived in an apartment in Sector 25 (Jalvayu Vihar) of Noida. Rajesh and Nupur practiced together at their clinic in Sector 27 of Noida.
Killed on the intervening night of 15–16 May 2008 the case aroused massive public interest and received heavy media coverage. The media in this case has been charged of salacious allegations against Aarushi and the suspects.
In the early stages when Aarushi’s body was found, the missing servant Hemraj was considered the main suspect. Next day, his decomposed body was discovered on the terrace.
Cops were criticized for failing to secure the crime scene immediately. Ruling out ex servants as suspects the cops tightened the noose around parents- Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar.
Cops spinned the theory that Rajesh murdered the two after finding them in an “objectionable” position, or because Rajesh’s alleged extra-marital affair was reason for blackmail by Hemraj. Talwar family and friends have all along maintained that the Talwar couple were being framed.
Transferred to the CBI, the proceedings exonerated the parents and suspected Talwars’ assistant Krishna along with two domestic servants—Rajkumar and Vijay.
Based on ‘narco’ tests on three, the CBI suspected they killed Aarushi after an attempted sexual assault, and Hemraj for being a witness.
In 2009, the CBI probe changed hands when talks of closing the case propped up. They named Rajesh Talwar as the sole suspect, but refused to charge him due to lack of any hard evidence.
The CBI in March 2012 argued in court for cancellation of Rajesh’s bail. The duo was charged with murder, destruction of evidence and conspiracy.
Nupur was arrested in April 2012 before being released on bail in September the same year.
Months later, in April 2013, CBI told court that Aarushi, Hemraj were killed by the Talwars. The same year, Talwar couple were held guilty by CBI court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
By November 2013, the parents were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Defence counsel pleaded before the court to summon 14 people, including former CBI joint director Arun Kumar as witness. But CBI opposed the plea.
A court rejected CBI’s claim of not enough evidence, and ordered proceedings against Talwars. Critics largely hint at the fact that judgment was based on weak evidence.
The first CBI investigating team, headed by joint director Arun Kumar, an Uttar Pradesh-cadre IPS officer, gave contradictory versions to the Noida police’s version.
Rajesh had a set of 12 golf clubs. One of the two clubs matched the dimensions of blunt injuries inflicted on the two victims.
Defence lawyers challenged the CBI’s golf club theory by talking of a ‘khukhri’ as a weapon”.
A pillow with cover seized from Hemraj’s room became one of the most highly debated exhibits.
The parents of Aarushi, Dr Nupur and Rajesh Talwar had been held guilty by the trial court five years after the twin murders.
As professionals they saw patients at Fortis Hospital where Rajesh headed the dental department, Rajesh also taught at the ITS dental college in Greater Noida.
The 1300 sq. ft. apartment had 3 bedrooms, a drawing-cum-dining room and a servants’ quarters, where Hemraj lived. Rajesh and Nupur lived in the master bedroom, while Aarushi lived in an adjacent room. Hemraj’s room had separate entry from outside the apartment; it also opened into the apartment from inside.
The entrance to Talwars’ apartment had three doors: the outermost grill gate, a middle grill door located in the passageway, and the innermost wooden door.
On 16 May 2008, the family’s housemaid Bharati Mandal (35) rang their doorbell around 6 am.
Employed six days before, after Bharati rang the doorbell multiple times, Nupur opened the innermost wooden door. She was asked to wait outside till Hemraj returned.
Bharati insisted Nupur throw the keys. Nupur then threw the keys down to Bharati.
By now Rajesh also woke up. He entered the living room and saw a near-empty Scotch whisky bottle on the dining table, which surprised him.
There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, and the middle grill door had been found latched from the outside in the morning.
Aarushi’s room usually locked was unlocked that day. On entering they saw Aarushi’s dead body lying on her bed.
It was a little later that they knew that Aarushi’s throat was slit. Both the parents blamed Hemraj for Aarushi’s murder in front of the maid.
Cops were informed by neighbours, in no time there were 15 people in the living room and 5-6 people in the Talwars’ bedroom; only Aarushi’s room was vacant. The crime scene had been “completely trampled upon”. The case attracted many mediapersons, who gathered around the house by 8 am.
On the morning of 16 May Rajesh’s former colleagues Rajiv Kumar Varshney and Rohit Kochhar told the police they saw bloodstains on the terrace door, its lock and the staircase. Others said they had not noticed any bloodstains.
On the morning of 17 May, Rajesh and Nupur left for Haridwar to immerse Aarushi’s ashes in the Ganges river. Visitors continued pouring in it is now when the terrace door was broken. As the group entered they saw more bloody drag marks. A decomposed body was discovered lying in a pool of blood at about 10:30 am that morning.
While Rajesh could not identify the body, a friend of Hemraj identified the body as his. An autopsy of Hemraj’s body was conducted at night by Dr. Naresh Raj.
Cops surprisingly did not cordon off the crime scene and many including the media, were roaming in the apartment without permission to gather evidence. 90% of the evidence at the crime scene was destroyed due to the police’s negligence.
Presence of liquor in three glasses and more than one person’s urine in the toilet raised the needle of suspicion about some people being present at the scene of crime.
On 21 May, Delhi Police joined the UP police in the investigation. By this time, the police as well as the media had started suspecting the parents because of multiple reasons Distance between beds of Aarushi and her parents was around 7–8 feet. Yet parents claimed they didn’t hear any noise and slept through the murders.
There was no sign of forced entry into Aarushi’s room.
Rajesh had offered to cover cost of police’s visit to Hemraj’s native village in Nepal. This was seen as a diversionary tactic.
The family allegedly showed “undue” haste in cremating Aarushi’s body and cleaning the crime scene on 16 May.
Gurdarshan Singh organized a press conference. He announced that Rajesh killed Aarushi and Hemraj to hide his extramarital affair with Anita Durrani. He claimed that Aarushi’s friend Anmol stated that she had told him about her father’s affair.
Singh later modified his theory to state Rajesh hit Aarushi when she confronted him on his extramarital affair, while Hemraj was killed for being a witness.
Painting of Aarushi as a disturbed, promiscuous teenager did not go well with many.
In 2008, Balaji Telefilms decided to depict an “inspired” version of the case on Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. Though Nupur Talwar tried to stop this from happening, the production house refused to change the script.
2015 film Rahasya was inspired by the twin murders. Talvar, another 2015 film, written by Vishal Bhardwaj and directed by Meghna Gulzar was based on the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.
Journalist Avirook Sen wrote a book titled Aarushi, released in 2015. The book argues that Aarushi’s parents are the victims of a miscarriage of justice.
A digital content company, Arré created a podcast titled Trial By Error: The Aarushi Files. Regional media and production companies have delved into the matter in some detail.
Nine years and three probes later, it is still unknown as who killed Aarushi and Hemraj inside Talwars’ home as no sign of intruders was found by the investigating teams.
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