Who is RealIy In Jail In India??? - Page 23

Rajesh & Aarushi shared a special bond: Nupur Talwar

1 Jul 2008, 0001 hrs IST, Rustam Roy,TIMESOFINDIA.COM

Rajesh and Nupur Talwar have been under tremendous pressure since their daughter Aarushi was found murdered. Nupur talks about her daughter and the character assassination the couple faced from a section of the media.

Q: It has been 45 days since that fateful day, how has life changed for you?

Life has completely turned around for us. Our loving daughter Aarushi was one of the most important objectives of our life and today we are questioning the objective of our very own existence. After losing Aarushi in such a cruel manner, my husband Dr. Rajesh Talwar was framed by the Noida Police. From becoming amongst the luckiest parents in the world with the most wonderful family life, we have become the most unfortunate father and mother. I pray to God that no parent is put through such misfortune.

Q: And now your husband is in prison...

Yes, with my husband unjustly languishing in prison, the grief of losing my daughter has become even more unbearable. We were a small close-knit family of three. After losing Aarushi, I and my husband are unable to even share our grief and pain with each other. I had wished that we could provide him support in the comfort of our family to deal with the pain. But that has been denied to us. Rajesh is a physical and emotional wreck. Rajesh and Aarushi shared the most special bond ever between father and daughter. The unbearable grief of losing her and then being unfairly and wrongly named as accused is something he just cannot comprehend.

Q: Are you happy with the investigation and how is it going?

The CBI is the leading investigating agency in the country. We hope they find the culprit and reveal the truth. We have cooperated with them in the past, and will continue to cooperate whenever required to do so.

Q: And there are constant updates on TV and any little rumour or fact is part of breaking news...

We were just a normal middle class family, far removed from media and criminal investigations. While we can understand the importance of the media reporting and covering happenings like this, there have been several instances of the media being irresponsible, speculating without verifying facts, character assassinating Aarushi and both of us as well. We find that there is no accountability and such speculative and incorrect reporting goes unchecked and continues till this day.

Q: Tell us about Aarushi and what was her life like? What did she want to become?

Aarushi was the most loveable and wonderful child ever. We doted on her. She was the apple of our eyes and we showered all our love and affection on her. She had many friends in school. She loved music and dance. Academically she was an outstanding student and enjoyed every moment of her life till she was tragically taken away from us. She wanted to become a doctor.

Q: How did you feel when a channel tried to make a serial on the incident?

It is shocking that some people can be so insensitive to convert our tragedy into a soap opera. We have strongly condemned these moves and have appealed to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to prevent such happenings.

Q: You went through the lie-detector test, so finally do you think it has helped to put things in perspective?

Our objective from day-1 has been to cooperate with the investigating agencies as we want to see that the culprits are found. I have been through two lie-detector tests, Rajesh has been through three lie-detector tests. We both have been through psycho-analysis tests and in the future, if any more scientific tests are needed, we are both willing to undergo them too.

Q: How do you see your life when the dust settles? Will you go back to your private practice again when all this is finally over?

We are still numb with grief and trauma. Rajesh is still in judicial custody. Passing each moment each day is an ordeal. At this point of time I can only hope that justice is done, and that, Rajesh who is absolutely innocent, is released from jail.

We deserve our police

30 Jun 2008, 0051 hrs IST, Ajay K Mehra

If the Aarushi Talwar murder case has brought out the incompetence and insensitivity of the police, the suicide of a rape victim at the Haryana police headquarters reflected the continued barbarity and criminalisation of the police force in India.

Only a few months ago, ACP Rajbir Singh, a star officer and encounter specialist with the Delhi Police, was mysteriously murdered in Gurgaon.

Even as these incidents make media head-lines the police battle violent political agitations in different parts of the country with fatal consequences. Corruption, violence and brutality are three grave charges against the Indian police since independence.

Five facts reflect the need for urgent police reforms. First, the nature of offences by the police is becoming graver. Second, cutting-edge cops alone are no longer the offenders.

Third, the police now face more serious crime and internal security challenges - such as violent political protests and Naxal terror - than before.

Fourth, not only has political interference increased; a diverse political map of contemporary India has also enhanced political stakes for control over the police. Fifth, police reform has never emerged as an electoral demand.

Custodial deaths and rape are the gravest forms of police atrocities in India. Despite under-reporting, the available figures indicate a rising trend in custodial deaths.

The incidence of custodial rape is negligibly reported or recorded. The record of the police in protecting Dalits, women and other underprivileged sections of our society from social violence has been miserable.

Be it the Bhagalpur blindings or the Gujarat riots, the police have displayed a violent organisational culture which has not been redressed.

The organisational leadership appears either besmirched by corruption, criminal conduct and political partisanship, or demoralised and marginalised. The number of top cops charged and convicted in criminal cases in recent years is alarming.

The nature, intensity and profile of crime and criminals have been changing, but the police have not kept pace. While criminalisation of politics has created an unequal challenge for the police, the level of upgradation of personnel, training and equipment leaves much to be desired. Despite six decades of the Maoist movement since the Telangana uprising of 1946, the insurgency in the north-east and nearly two and a half decades of terrorism, the police lack a strategy to deal with these challenges.

To compound their woes, political protests are becoming progressively violent. Increasing competitive politics makes parties and leaders use violence unethically to discredit the police and the regime, without considering that they will inherit the same governmental machinery if they assume power.

The contours of political power in India have changed decisively, necessitating a delicate use of agencies of the government, particularly the bureaucracy and the police.

But the politicisation of the police and bureaucracy since 1967 has been intensified during the past two decades. Increasing electoral stakes means that political parties, which are themselves deinstitutionalised, are creating extra-institutional pressure on the police. Naturally, 'smarter' police officers, both at the thana level and at the upper echelons, unhesitatingly take advantage of the situation that brings them fringe benefits.

Talk of police reforms has been doing the rounds in India for decades now. All the states, except those created in the past two decades, have had a - sometimes, even two - police commission, before the emergency and police unrest compelled the first national police commission in 1979. While the relentless efforts of Prakash Singh and N K Singh forced follow-up on the Dharma Vira Commission, recommendations of the Ribeiro, Padmanabhaiah, Malimath and Sorabjee committees appear to have met their predictable fates.

Societal pressure, including that of the media, for police reforms has been negligible. Considering that political support for police reforms is unlikely to come by, the onus lies on civil society to push for it. Otherwise, we have to reconcile ourselves to the police we deserve - corrupt, violent and incompetent.

The writer is a professor, Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia

Despite 3 arrests, no breakthrough yet

New Delhi, July 02, 2008

First Published: 01:28 IST(2/7/2008)

Last Updated: 02:38 IST(2/7/2008)

So who killed Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj? A month after taking over the investigation of the case and 45 days after the murders, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it appears, is desperately trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle.

When will the biggest murder mystery of the year be solved? After three arrests, one would have thought the case was nearing its end. But after each arrest, a new theory is being floated, which has only added to the confusion. The CBI hasn't explained the roles of Krishna and Raj Kumar, the two Nepalese servants arrested by the agency, nor has it given a clean chit to Dr Rajesh Talwar, arrested by the Noida Police in the case.

To add to the mystery, the agency has said that Talwar's role in the murders cannot be ruled out. And despite saying that Krishna and Raj Kumar have confessed, they haven't said who the killer is.

According to senior officials, the main line of investigation is the murders were a "crime of passion and lust". However, Talwar not being given a clean chit means the agency hasn't ruled the Noida Police's theory of an extra-marital affair between him and Anita Durani and Aarushi and Hemraj getting close to each other.

During the last one month, the agency has subjected the five main players to nearly one-and-a-half dozen medical and scientific tests. After having told the court that Raj Kumar had confessed to destroying Aarushi's mobile phone and could help them in recovering Hemraj's mobile and khukri, the agency has drawn a blank. They had similarly told the court that Krishna had confessed and could help them recover the mobiles and the murder weapon. However, no recoveries were made at the instance of Krishna.

And after 45 days, the suspense continues.

Aarushi case: Blood stains on T-shirt not Rajkumar's

Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation digs deeper and deeper into the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, the T-shirt allegedly belonging to one of the accused, Rajkumar, will play a crucial role in cracking the case.

The T-Shirt with blood stains allegedly belonging to Rajkumar, Anita Durani's domestic help, is at present with the Centre for Finger Printing DNA and Diagnostics at Hyderabad.

A source in the investigating agency said that it has been confirmed that the blood stains on the T-shirt are not Rajkumar's.

After Rajkumar had been arrested, it was alleged by him initially that the blood stains on the T-shirt were his.

It was said that he had bruises on his body thanks to an allergy and that may have caused the blood stains.

The CDFD is trying to ascertain now whether the blood stains were of Aarushi and Hemraj.

The CDFD is yet to complete the verification process and sources say that it may take another day or two before they come to any sort of conclusion.

Rajkumar was picked up by the CBI based on the results of the narco-analysis tests conducted on Krishna, the compounder at Dr Rajesh Talwar's clinic.

Krishna, during the test conducted at Bengaluru, had said that the motive was two-fold. Firstly, Krishna had sought to take revenge on Dr Talwar who had allegedly humiliated him for goofing up at the clinic.

Secondly, it was alleged that Rajkumar had tried forcing himself on Aarushi and when she resisted, he killed her fearing that he might get exposed.

Hemraj, the domestic help at the Talwars, was murdered two as he threatened to expose both Krishna and Rajkumar for committing the murder.

Although the tests make no mention of Dr Talwar's role in the murder, the CBI is not ready to give him a clean chit as yet.

They say that the investigations are still on and they are not ready to free Dr Talwar as yet. During Krishna's interrogation, it was stated that Dr Talwar, who is now in judicial custody, had no role to play in the murder and he was fast asleep in his room when the incident occurred.

The CBI is now trying to ascertain whether Dr Talwar was part of a conspiracy and also how he did not hear anything when the double murder and the attempted rape took place, considering the fact he was in the next room.

"Nupur was questioned to ascertain whether Aarushi's body was clothed when she first discovered the murder," a CBI official said.

The CBI also questioned a Noida police photographer who took pictures of the crime scene after Aarushi's body was discovered in her upscale Jal Vayu Vihar apartment on May 16. The photographer had handed the pictures to the CBI when it took over the investigations into the case on June 1.

"The photographer, Chunnilal, was questioned on whether Aarushi's body was clothed and whether Nupur Talwar was present when the photographs were taken," a CBI official said.

The development is significant with the agency suspecting that Krishna, the medical assitant of Rajesh Talwar, and Raj Kumar, domestic help of Talwars' dentist couple friends the Durranis, tried to force themselves on the teenager and later killed her.

After Aarushi's murder was discovered, the police initially named her family's domestic help Hemraj as the prime suspect but backtracked when his body was found on the terrace of the apartment the next day.

The police arrested Rajesh Talwar on May 23, saying he had committed the double murder as he objected to Aarushi's closeness to Hemraj.

The CBI arrested Krishna on June 13 and said he had confessed to his involvement in the murders. The agency also arrested Raj Kumar after subjecting him to a series of scientific tests and recovering a blood-stained white T-Shirt and a bicycle from the room he stayed in.

In spite of questioning a number of people and subjecting them to scientific tests, the CBI has not yet been able to locate the weapon used in the double murders or establish the motive for the crime.

Meanwhile, in a packed courtroom in neighbouring Ghaziabad town, Rajesh Talwar's counsel Satish Tamta sought details on the status of the case as he planned to move the Allahabad High Court for the dentist's bail.

Toward this, he submitted three applications: one on Talwar's status - whether he was an accused or a witness; one for a copy of the first information report filed by the police on the murder, as also a copy of Aarushi's autopsy report; and a third seeking more time for Nupur Talwar to meet her husband in jail.

"We want to know the conclusions drawn by the CBI during its investigation to enable us make Talwar's picture clear before the high court," Tamta maintained.

CBI prosecutor RK Saini opposed this, saying the case diary detailing the status of the investigations could only be revealed to the high court if it asked for it.

"The contents of case diary cannot be revealed to any one. If they (the defence) need to convince the court, the court has the right to call for the diary," Saini maintained.

Special judge Sapna Mishra Tripathi agreed with this and ruled that details of the diary could not be provided to Talwar.

Tripathi also directed the CBI to hand over copies of the FIR and the autopsy report. As for the increased meeting time sought, she said this would be governed by the jail's rules.