Aarushi Talwar &Hemraj Banjade

Murder Case

Rishu Mishra (15BEC0187)Batch - TA1

May 16, 2008

Case Introduction:May 16, 2008: Aarushi Talwar found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her home in Noida. Domestic help Hemraj, a Nepali, suspected of murder.May 17: Hemraj's body found on the terrace of Talwar's residence.

Followed by:May 18: Police say murders done with surgical precision, insider job suspected.

May 19: Talwar's former Nepali domestic help Vishnu Sharma named as suspect.

May 21: The Delhi police joins murder probe.

May 22: Family under suspicion, probe begins on honour killing angle, the police quiz Aarushi's close friend whom she spoke to 688 times in the 45 days preceding her murder.

May 23: Rajesh Talwar arrested for the twin murders.June 1: CBI takes over the probe in the case.

June 13: Domestic help of Rajesh Talwar, Krishna, arrested by CBI.

June 20: Lie detection test of Rajesh Talwar conducted at CFSL, Delhi.

June 25: Second lie detection test conducted on Nupur Talwar. Her first lie detection test was found inconclusive.

June 26: CBI declares the case to be a "blind case".

Rajesh Talwar refused bail by the special magistrate in Ghaziabad.

July 3: The Supreme Court rejects a PIL which challenged the conduct of narco-analysis test on the accused.

July 12: Rajesh Talwar freed on bail from Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad.

January 5, 2010: CBI moves court to conduct narco test on Talwar couple.

December 29: CBI submits closure report. Clean chit to servants but points fingers at parents.

January 25, 2011: Rajesh Talwar attacked in the Ghaziabad court premises.

February 9: Court takes cognisance of CBI report, charges Aarushi's parents with murder and destruction of evidence.

February 21: Couple approaches the Allahabad High Court for quashing trial court summons.

March 18: High Court dismisses their plea to quash summons and orders initiation of proceedings against them.

March 19, 2011: The couple approaches the Supreme Court which stays the trial against them.

January 6, 2012: Supreme Court dismisses Talwar's plea and allows the trial to proceed.

June 11, 2012: Trial starts before Special Judge S Lal.

October 10, 2013: Final arguments begin.

November 25, 2013: Talwar couple convicted by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad, sent to Dasna jail.

Aarushi Talwar case probe had become too personal:Defence lawyer

The witnesses were also allegedly prepared by CBI to give testimony in the court according to what the investigators taught them, he says.Tanveer Ahmed Mir, counsel for Aarushi’s parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar also claimed that the testimony by witnesses in court was what the investigators taught them.

He was part of a panel discussion organised by Penguin Random House and Mumbai Mirror -“Speak for Aarushi” in connection with journalist Avirook Sen’s book “Aarushi”.According to Sen, the defence arguments were not fully heard and there were glitches in the CBI investigations in the case.

He also claims that there might have been tutoring and possible blackmail of some key witnesses.

Defence Lawyer’s Personal Views:

“I believe that in the CBI itself there was a very strong conflict and that conflict brewed up between the second investigating officer and Nupur. Now what used to happen is that the investigating officer used to spend lot of time talking to the court. Rajesh would absorb on all what was being thrown at him and Nupur would give it back. So, the case became too personal between the investigators and the family,” said Mir.

The defence lawyer also claimed that all summons from CBI would come to the Talwars from an email id hemraj@jalvayuvihar.com which would un-nerve them.The witnesses were also allegedly prepared by CBI to give testimony in the court according to what the investigators taught them,.

By: PTI | New Delhi | Updated: August 28, 2015 1:11 pmPublished in : Online edition of “The Indian Express”

Map of Dr Rajesh’s Flat:

This is how Dr. Rajesh Talwar killed Aarushi and HemrajSlide: (1/5)CBI Additional SP AGL Kaul, who led the second probe team, went into the motive behind the sensational double murder of 14-year old Aarushi and domestic servant Hemraj at the residence of dentist couple on the intervening night of May 15-16, 2008.

Explaining the sequence of events which took place on the fateful night, Kaul said Rajesh heard some noise and went to Hemraj's room but did not find him there.

"There were two golf sticks lying in Hemraj's room one of which Rajesh Talwar picked up. He opened the door and found Aarushi and Hemraj were in objectionable position on the bed of Aarushi," Kaul said in his testimony.

According to CBI:

This is how Dr. Rajesh Talwar killed Aarushi and HemrajSlide: (2/5)Kaul said finding them in such a position, Rajesh Talwar hit on Hemraj's head with golf stick. By the time he gave a second blow the servant's head moved from the position and the stick hit Aarushi on her forehead

According to CBI:

This is how Dr. Rajesh Talwar killed Aarushi and HemrajSlide: (3/5)Kaul said when golf sticks were seized the stick heads were not sealed separately.

"The V or U shaped injury on Aarushi's forehead could have been caused by the use of golf stick head," he said..

"By the time the injured Hemraj had fallen from the bed. Both checked the pulse of Aarushi and found her near-dead which scared them and planned that the servant should be executed so that no one comes to know about the incident," Kaul said before the court.

According to CBI:

This is how Dr. Rajesh Talwar killed Aarushi and HemrajSlide: (4/5)

The duo wrapped Hemraj's body in a bed-sheet and dragged him to terrace where they slit his throat, covering the body with a cooler panel, Kaul said.

He said after coming to the room, they dressed up the crime scene by arranging the bedsheet and toys.

They slit Aarushi's throat, to ensure that wounds on Hemraj and their daughter look similar, and Nupur cleaned her private parts, he said.

According to CBI:

This is how Dr. Rajesh Talwar killed Aarushi and HemrajSlide: (5/5)Giving details of his findings, the officer said the dentist couple cleaned blood stains, disturbed the router, collected all the clothes which were used to clean blood and also the small sharp edged weapon used in the killing with an intention to dispose them off.

"They cleaned the golf stick which was used in the murder and hid it in the loft of Aarushi's bedroom. They locked the door of Aarushi's room from outside. They locked the outermost door from inside and wooden door from outside and entered the flat through Hemraj's room, the door of which opened between these two entry door," he said.

According to CBI:

10 Reasons Why The Author Believes Aarushi's Parents are Being Framed:

Journalist Avirook Sen has written "Aarushi", a new book on the murder of 13-year-old Aarushi Talwar.

1. The simple math used by the CBI of there were four people in the house, two are dead, so the other two are their killers does not work. But despite having the evidence, the CBI chose not to pursue that line of investigation at all. There are clear indications of the presence of other domestic helpers (who were arrested and then released) in their narco narrations2. The CBI never seized any of the Talwars' dental equipment that it claims was used to kill Aarushi. In fact, the investigators had no clue what a dental scalpel looked like, leave alone understand what kind of cuts it could inflict; they didn't even bother to buy one to check.

As for Rajesh Talwar's golf clubs - the one that had supposedly been 'cleaned' (and was therefore the weapon of offence) was not the one that the prosecution presented in court as the weapon.

3. Witnesses may have been coerced/blackmailed/schooled. The clearest proof of this is in the testimony of  domestic help Bharti Mandal, who worked briefly with the Talwars, where she says she was testifying exactly what was 'explained' to her.

4.  The trial judge who convicted the Talwars ignored what was happening and being recorded in his own court. For instance, in his judgment, he attempted to establish the motive of the crimes by saying that Hemraj's pillow and blood were found in Aarushi's room 

Continued…5. The complete disregard for the integrity of forensic evidence: several pieces of evidence

were illegally unsealed in this case. The pillow covers, golf clubs, clothing, all of these were compromised. Photographs of the crime scene were also manipulated 

6.  The crudely manipulative conduct of the prosecution: once again, this a matter of record and detailed in the book. The CBI invented a macabre e-mail address to send all its official communication to the Talwars, a tactic to intimidate them

7. Witnesses were dropped because they would have blown apart the prosecution case. The CBI started with a list of 141 relied-upon witnesses, it stopped at 39. Many of those listed and later dropped had contrary tales to tell about what happened at the crime scene and during the investigation.

8. The Talwars weren't given access to critical documents despite High Court orders. In order to assess whether a DNA report had got things right, one needs the details of the tests conducted, or the raw data. The Allahabad High Court quoted British law extensively to say that the defence had the right to this data so that it could approach its own experts

9. . Several of the documents submitted to court appear forged: this list is long, and the details are in the book. But among these documents are panchnamas (police documents) into which sentences were inserted; tags of forensic labs that were supposedly official were written out on scraps of paper, these were crude and error-filled. 

10. The unrelenting focus on the conduct of the Talwars. If this was such an open-and-shut case, then why wasn't hard evidence relied upon? Why was it that witnesses were simply brought in to say the Talwars weren't weeping when their daughter was found dead?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author.

Some Facts…Some 28 fingerprint samples were lifted from the scene of crime and

handed over to the CBI on May 20. This was 10 days before the case was formally handed over to the CBI. Most of the fingerprints, especially those on the whiskey bottle, were smudged.

About 70% of the evidence were destroyed by people (media persons & neighbours) who came to see the crime scene, prior to the arrival of Police. In total 90% of the evidence was manipulated.

The "Hemraj killed Aarushi" theory was gospel for a full day. Rajesh repeatedly told the police officers to pursue Hemraj and not to waste time in his flat. He dissuaded them from opening the locked terrace door and even offered the policemen Rs 25,000 to rush to Hemraj's village in Nepal.

 The police leaked Aarushi's text messages, social media posts, an email to her father in which she apologises for something he didn't approve of. Even as the investigation began, a senior police official told reporters that Aarushi was "characterless".April 2011: CBI says "only parents could have killed Aarushi"8 June 2012: Trial begins26 November 2013: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar found guilty of murdering Aarushi and Hemraj and sentenced to life

Movie:Based onNoida double murder case

Directed by : MeghnaGulzar

Produced by:Vineet Jain

Vishal Bhardwaj

Written by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Starring:Irrfan Khan

Konkona Sen Sharma

Neeraj KabiSohum Shah

TalvarTrailer