Aarushi and Hemra killing: Police story has holes

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Police story in Noida murder case has holes

Noida: While the Noida police claimed to have cracked the double-murder case on Friday, senior police officers failed to explain some very basic details of the investigation and what led them to conclude that Dr Rajesh Talwar was the killer.

What was the motive?

Senior police officers say a person killing his servant as he had an affair with his daughter is possible but why would he go on to kill his daughter? The biggest mystery of the case — the motive behind the killings — remains a puzzle. Since the last one week, police has attributed various motives to the murder but on Friday when they announced they had arrested the killer, they were at a loss to explain as to what had angered Talwar so much that he decided to kill Aarushi and Hemraj and that too in his own house.

Police say Hemraj and Aarushi were aware of his extra-marital affair and his daughter objected to it often and they had heated discussions on this. Police said Hemraj had discussed this with some of his friends and when Talwar came to know about it, he had scolded and even beaten Hemraj. But this wasn’t the reason why he murdered the two, the police said.

The two — Hemraj and Aarushi — had become close and developed physical relations and when Talwar came to know about it he had threatened his servant. However, he had known for sometime about their relationship but what made him react the way as the police say he did last Friday is not known. Was something else the trigger?

Why his own house?

Senior police officers say a person killing his servant as he had an affair with his daughter is possible but why would he go on to kill his daughter? Police haven’t been able to exactly explain why Talwar killed Aarushi. Even if he had decided to kill them, couldn’t he have taken Hemraj out with him on some pretext and kill him?

Hemraj, the police said, had often told his friends that he feared for his life. Why had Hemraj stayed back when Talwar had come to know of his relationship with his daughter some months back? “He could have easily left the place the day Talwar had threatened him the first day,” an officer said.

It is perplexing why Talwars continued with Hemraj as their domestic help after coming to know of his physical relations with their daughter.

What was Nupur doing?

Police have failed to say what Aarushi mother, Dr Nupur Talwar, was doing on the night of the murder. Police said around 1 a.m., when the murder, even the slightest of noise can be heard. “As there is no traffic and the colony is very peaceful, you can’t miss shouts of this nature. Even if someone walks on the terrace, you can hear the noise. If you pull open the cover of the cooler it makes enough noise for the person in the bedroom to hear,” said IG (Meerut) Gurdarshan Singh.
The police went on to explain that anything that would have happened in Aarushi’s room would have been easily heard in Nupur’s room.

“The doors of the two rooms are hardly four feet away and if you take the position of the beds they are hardly six feet away. It cannot be possible that the person in the other bedroom does not come to know what’s happening in the other,” Singh said.

Who was killed first?

Another mystery is the timings of the two murders. Singh initially said Talwar killed Hemraj to eliminate all witnesses to Aarushi’s murder. He then went on to say that Talwar murdered Hemraj first and then killed Aarushi. So was the possible witness to the murder that hadn’t been committed till then eliminated first so that there doesn’t remain a witness to the crime? The police were as confused as anyone else on this.

Also the police had earlier said the murders were committed within minutes of each other. Later they said there was a difference of 3-4 hours between the two murders.

Where is the weapon of crime?

The weapons used to commit the crimes, a hammer and scalpel, haven’t been recovered till now. The failure to recover the weapon of offence can become the deciding factor when the case goes to trial. Delhi Police’s failure to recover the pistol used to kill Jessica Lall was one of the strong points used by the defence counsels in their favour in court.

Moreover, the police haven’t recovered the clothes that Talwar was wearing at the time when he allegedly committed the murders. Police haven’t recovered the mobile phones of Aarushi and Hemraj till now. The lax attitude of the Noida Police has already ensured that they lost crucial evidence that could have been lifted from the crime spot.

Who helped Talwar?

Police have maintained from the beginning that 3-4 persons were involved in the crime. They had also recovered atleast three glasses used to consume liquor from Hemraj’s room. “We have leads that point to the presence of at least 3-4 assailants in the house on the night of the murder,” A Satish Ganesh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Noida had said.

Who found Hemraj’s body?

While it is well known that retired DSP, K.K. Gautam, discovered the body, police on Friday said it was Rajesh Talwar who had called from Hardwar to inform that they body was lying on the terrace. This is confusing as police did not say whom did Talwar call to inform and if he had called why wasn’t the case cracked earlier?

Police said when Talwar reached home last Friday he saw his daughter and Hemraj in a “objectionable position”. However, there are three doors to cross before one enters the house and Talwar must have rung the doorbell. How come, Hemraj still remain in Aarushi’s room till Talwar arrived.

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