Servants admitted to killing Aarushi, Hemraj: CBI inspector

In what could be potentially damaging to the CBI’s case, an inspector of the agency told a Ghaziabad trial court that the three servants had admitted to the double murder. These servants were previously suspected of the crime and were not cooperating with the investigation. The 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case is being heard by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad.[caption id=“attachment_512181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Aarushi Talwar. Image courtesy ibnlive.[/caption] The admission was made by CBI inspector MS Fartiyal, a witness of the prosecution, during cross-examination on Wednesday (20 March). Fartiyal was part of the first CBI team headed by Arun Kumar that investigated the case for the first 15 months. The investigation was subsequently handed over to a second CBI team headed by Neelabh Kishore in September 2009. Speaking to Firspost, Tanveer Ahmed, counsel for the dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, who have been charged with the double murder, said, “CBI inspector MS Fartiyal was assisting the investigating officer Vijay Kumar. The question put to him was whether during the investigation, he gained knowledge that the Nepali servants Rajkumar, Vijay Mandal and Krishna Thadarai had admitted to the CBI to committing the double murder of Aarushi and Hemraj. The witness replied in the affirmative that they had admitted to us (CBI) they had committed the double murder.” Asked if this was a significant development, the counsel said, “You may call it a significant development. This was already part of the investigation. The fact of the matter is they (servants) were arrested and had admitted to the crime.” After the first CBI team took over the case, Krishna Thadarai (Rajesh Talwar’s compounder), Vijay Mandal (domestic help of one of the neighbours) and Raj Kumar (domestic help of the Durranis, family friends of the Talwars who lived in the neighbourhood) had been arrested and were named accused in the double murder case. But they were subsequently released on bail by the CBI for ’lack of evidence’. Reacting to Fartiyal’s statement in court, CBI counsel RK Saini said, “This is not a significant development. When the police officer has to submit application for extension of police remand, they have to make out grounds that the suspects are involved in the case and are not cooperating and therefore we want their police custody. The defence counsel’s question to the witness was whether he (Fartiyal) was aware that they (the three servants) were involved in the crime as per his application (before the court for extension of remand). And he (Fartiyal) replied that his application was that though they (servants) were involved they were not cooperating and therefore the CBI wanted their police remand. “Secondly, suppose there is an investigation and someone is suspected as accused. But at a later stage, the persons are found to be innocent. The net result is that nothing was found against them (servants) and they were discharged." Asked what the role of Fartiyal was in the investigation, the CBI counsel said, he was assisting the main investigating officer and was responsible for seizing all the relevant documents from the Noida Police when the case was transferred to the CBI. Rajesh and Nupur Talwar are on trial for the murder of their daughter teenage daughter Aarushi Talwar and the domestic help Hemraj. In 2008, on the intervening night of 15–16 May, Aarushi Talwar and 45-year-old Nepali domestic help Hemraj were brutally murdered at the couple’s apartment in Noida.