A 14 year old girl, Aarushi Talwar was found dead in her bedroom on the morning of May 16, 2008. She was residing at Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, along with her parents, Dr Rajesh Talwar and Dr Nupur Talwar, both of whom were doctors. Her throat was slit and her head was bludgeoned with a blunt object.
The prime suspect of the case was Hemant Banjade. He was the domestic help in the house and later on it was suspected that he had an eye for Aarushi. On May 17, the next day, Hemraj’s dead body was found in the terrace of the same apartment where Aarushi and her family were staying. His throat was also slit and his head was bludgeoned with a blunt weapon.
On May 23, 2008, Rajesh Talwar was arrested for the double murder of his daughter and his domestic help but was released after inconclusive evidence. The case was transferred to CBI. In 2010, the CBI submitted a closure report on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Rajesh Talwar was their prime suspect but there was no evidence against him.
CBI Judge Shyam Lal convicted the Talwars guilty of the charge of murder and destruction of evidence. Section 106 of The Evidence Act says that “When any fact is especially within the knowledge of any person, the burden of proving that act is upon himself.”
Section 114 says that a court is entitled to “presumption of certain facts”based on certain reasonable human conduct. The Talwars spent 4 years in Dasna jail. The case was sent to Allahabad High Court under judges BK Narayana and AK Mishra.
Shortcomings of the Police
The weapons used in the crime was believed to be a khukri – a type of machete used by Gurkhas and the heavy object which was used to hit the victims’ heads. Both of these weapons were never found. The domestic help Hemant Banjade’s Tata Indicom mobile phone that was active for around 18 hours after the murders was also not found. Aarushi’s N72 Nokia phone set was recovered after 15 months but the CBI found its memory deleted. No photos, audios or videos could be recovered from the phone.
There were 26 fingerprints found by the Noida Police at the crime scene but 24 crucial fingerprints were destroyed due to unprofessional handling of the fingerprints by the police. Only 2 fingerprints could be saved but these could not provide any direct link to the case. The CBI tried to establish that the parents killed their child and the servant in the bedroom and dragged the servant’s body to the terrace but they could not present any solid evidence and this theory was found to be baseless.
If the Noida Police had preserved the evidence collected and responsibly done their duty, then the case would have been solved faster and the deceased would have got justice. As of now, the parents had not committed the murder and yet they served 4 years in prison and even when they were released, the society would view them as murderers.
Now, this case still remains unsolved and whoever is the killer roams freely. Whether this should be considered as an example of a perfect crime or an imperfect investigation is for you to ponder upon.
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