Aarushi Talwar murder case remains a mystery with several theories floating around

On Thursday, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the double murders of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj. Since the Talwars have been declared not guilty by the high court, the inevitable question then arises as to who committed the murder? The murder that gripped the nation continues to be a mystery with several speculative theories floating around Aarushi’s murder. Was Aarushi really found in an ‘objectionable’ position? Has the murder weapon been found? Along with theories, a multitude of questions arise as to how exactly was Aarushi Talwar murdered. [caption id=“attachment_2465538” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Aarushi Talwar. Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] According to the CBI's closure report , “Rajesh in his written complaint had alleged that his servant Hemraj had killed his daughter in the night of 15/16 May 2008 and that he was missing.” However, just the next day, on 17 May 2008, Hemraj’s body was found on the terrace of Talwar residence. The CBI took Rajesh into custody and questioned him, but the interrogation reached a dead end. The CBI’s report states: “During this period, Rajesh was interrogated in detail but no recovery was made and no evidence was found against him. His judicial custody was extended on the request of CBI till 11 July 2008, when finally CBI submitted to the court that ’the scientific examination results could not connect accused Rajesh with the crime’.” In the sequence of events mentioned in the CBI report, on the insistence of his wife Nupur, Rajesh planned to gift Aarushi a digital camera that night (on 15 May) itself instead of waiting for her birthday on 24 May. Aarushi received her present and went to the spare room, while her parents went to their bedroom. As per the CBI report, no direct evidence exists between the intervening night of 15 and 16 May. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, the CBI, in its report, said that “both (Nupur and Rajesh) were weeping and telling maid Bharti ‘Dekho Hemraj kya karke gaya hai?’”. Clearly, the parents blamed the domestic servant for their daughter’s death, with Rajesh even telling the police that Hemraj had committed the murder and had gone missing. Talwar even insisted that the police should search for Hemraj’s whereabouts. Without seeking a murder weapon or even a motive, it seemed that the Talwars blamed Hemraj for their daughter’s murder. It could be so since Talwar had told the CBI that he had found his daughter and Hemraj in an “objectionable position”, according to Times of India. Talwar, the report says, even went on to say that he “killed them (Aarushi and Hemraj) using his golf stick and a sharp-edged weapon”. According to an article by News18, Rajesh, had in a fit of rage, “picked up some blunt object” and then lunged at Hemraj who was on top of Aarushi. The article had further stated that “the blow meant for Hemraj hit Aarushi, killing her”. That blunt object, according to investigators, was a golf club, and Talwar was accused of wiping clean any evidence from it. According to PTI, two clubs were found — iron golf club No 4 and a wooden golf club No 5 — cleaner than the others during examination, an indication, as per CBI’s theory, that the alleged murder weapon was cleaned by the accused to destroy evidence. When Aarushi was seemingly attacked, Hemraj now turned eyewitness, and was hence bludgeoned too. A dentist scalpel was used to slit both Hemraj and Aarushi’s throats, the News18 report said. Now, the report raises two crucial questions: “Wouldn’t Hemraj or Aarushi or both shout for help when attacked?” and if Rajesh was not the killer, wouldn’t they “sleeping 5 feet away hear a thing”? Furthermore, there is no proof of Hemraj being involved in any type of affair with Aarushi. Was the article pointing to the possibility that Aarushi was raped? The News18 article says: “It has been accepted by multiple pieces of evidence and eyewitness testimony that Dinesh Talwar called up Dr Sunil Dhore, the doctor who was doing the postmortem and requested that ’the word rape should not be mentioned’. To ensure this, he even roped in senior doctors of AIIMS who called Dr Dhore and made the same request? Why?” Was Aarushi Talwar raped before she was murdered? What about Hemraj, did he have any motives, in any way? What of the other servants Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal, who were arrested and quizzed intensely by the CBI? While several questions remain unanswered, it will be difficult to find Aarushi’s true killers. With several theories with loopholes being floated around, it will be difficult to believe any of them. They, after all, are speculative.