NEW DELHI: The Aarushi murder case on Friday took a sensational turn when police arrested dentist Rajesh Talwar, the teenaged girl's father, for allegedly killing her and domestic help Hemraj following bad blood between them over his extramarital affair with a doctor colleague. (
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Exactly a week after the twin murder in the small hours of Friday last week, police arrested Talwar saying he had made elaborate efforts to cover up the gruesome crime and also mislead investigators.
Though Meerut Zone Inspector General Gurdarshan Singh did not say with whom Talwar allegedly had illicit relationship, UP ADGP Brij Lal told reporters in Lucknow that the dentist's affairs with Anita Durrani was the prime reason for the strained relationship that led to the twin murder.
Talwar, who was produced before a magistrate and sent to police remand for 14 days, claimed he was innocent and took the name of one Dinesh Verma as having "framed him".
Amidst reports that more than one arrest has been made in the case, Lal said Talwar's wife Nupur, also a dentist, has not been arrested while Singh said investigations were on. He also did not rule out the involvement of more accused.
Singh said that the Class IX 14-year-old student did not like her father's relationship with Durrani and was angry that she had raised objections with Talwar about it. She also discussed the matter with Hemraj (45) and probably in the process shared a close relationship with him.
Hours before the murder on May 15 night, Talwar came back home around 2300 hours and saw Hemraj in Aarushi's bedroom. Singh said it was an "objectionable" scene for the father though it was not a compromising position.
The dentist then took Hemraj to the terrace on the pretext of talking to him and hit him with a hammer-like heavy object on his head and used a surgical knife to slit his throat. (
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He then came down, had some whisky and went to Arushi's room where in a similar fashion carried out the murder of his daughter by snapping the veins that carry blood to the brain. His wife Nupur was said to be sleeping in the other room at that time.
Hemraj had also discussed with his friends the doctor's alleged illicit relationship, which Talwar did not like. Hemraj had also feared for his life and had told some of his friends about that.
Singh said police had several reasons to suspect the involvement of Talwar in the murders, one being that the couple was not prompt in calling the police and instead called people close to them to talk about the incident.
He said Talwar "sentimentally attacked" the police when the murder has come to light and tried to mislead by saying they should not waste time at the crime spot but rather go and look for Hemraj, who he said was the killer.
Another reason for suspicion was that they chose to dump Arushi's mattress on the neighbour's terrace.
Suspicion also strenghtened around Talwar because there was no forced entry because of the time of the event when the house would have been locked from inside coupled with the fact a murderer from outside would not bother to lock the door of the terrace.
"Talwar would not have been in sound sleep when the murder took place as he was talking on phone till 12 am. The area is peaceful and there is no traffic. So the slightest activity should have woken them up. It is not possible that a murder take place in the room right next to theirs and they did not hear anything," Singh said.
Suspicions were also raised because efforts were put into hiding Hemraj's body. "The lid of the cooler was put on the body so that nobody could spot it and the door to the terrace was locked. Any killer who could have come did not bother to close the terrace door and lock it," he said.
Lal said Talwar used to bring Durrani to his house when his wife was not there, adding his daughter, Hemraj, other servants who had worked in his house and people who worked in his clinic were aware of this.
Police said Talwar was unhappy about Hemraj talking about his affair with his acquaintances. "It was Hemraj who told Aarushi about her father's affairs," Lal said.
Asked about whether the wife was aware about Talwar's illicit relationship, Lal said it was a matter of investigation.
He said so far it appeared that Talwar had carried out the crime alone and that was a planned murder.
Singh said the prime intent was to kill Aarushi and Hemraj was murdered so that there would be no witness.
The top police official said circumstantial evidence played an important role in solving the case and other evidence were used to corroborate it. Sources said police was questioning Nupur and the Durrani couple for more clues.
"Investigations are on and we have revealed to you details about which the probe is over. We have not done the arrest solely on the basis of confessions. We will not arrest a person if we do not have sufficient evidence," Singh said.
Lal said the details provided by former servant Krishna helped the police a lot in the case. "Hemraj used to tell him that he feared for his life as he knew about the doctor's affairs," he said.
The weapons used in the crime are yet to be recovered and police said Talwar's inputs would be important in finding them.
The police have been under tremendous pressure to crack the case ever since the failure of the Noida sleuths in finding Hemraj's body came to light.
The body was discovered by a retired police official who had come to the Talwar's residence to offer condolences.
The case has been under intense media glare and it grabbed headlines on account 'whodunnit' nature ever since the discovery of the body of Hemraj, who was initially the prime suspect.
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