Timeline: Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case
Special CBI court summons Rajesh and Nupur Talwar asaccused in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case after taking cognisance of the agency's closure report.
May 16, 2008: Aarushi Talwar, daughter of a dentist couple, found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her flat in Jalvayu Vihar. Based on the Talwars' claim, missing domestic help Hemraj (Nepalese national) suspected of murder.
May 17, 2008: Hemraj's body found on the terrace of Talwar's house.
Noida Sector-20 police Station Officer (S.O.) Dataram Nauneria shifted for lapses in investigations.
Autopsy report rules out sexual assault.
May 18, 2008: Police say murders done with surgical precision; insider job suspected.
Superintendent of Police (City) Mahesh Mishra transferred.
May 19, 2008: Talwar's former Nepalese domestic help Vishnu Sharma named suspect.
May 21, 2008: Delhi Police join murder probe; police say murder committed by a "doctor or a butcher".
May 22, 2008: Family under suspicion; honor killing angle probed
Police quiz Aarushi's close friend, whom she spoke to 688 times in the 45 days preceding her murder.
May 23, 2008: Aarushi's father Dr. Rajesh Talwar arrested for the two murders.
June 13, 2008: The Nepalese compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, Krishna (alias Kishan) arrested by CBI. The arrest follows polygraph test and Narco Analysis test at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Bangalore the day before. He was earlier subjected to polygraph test twice at Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi as well as psychological assessment test at AIIMS, New Delhi on June 9, 2008; based on the test results, CBI arrested Krishna.
June 14, 2008: Krishna the compounder of Dr. Rajesh Talwar produced before the duty magistrate, district courts, Ghaziabad. CBI requests for 14 days police custody of Krishna for further investigation. The Magistrate grants 3 days police custody remand. He is to be produced before the Special Magistrate for CBI cases at Ghaziabad on June 17, 2008. A CBI team had earlier conducted a search at Krishna's former premises at Jalvayu Vihar, Noida and seized some clothing and other materials for forensic examination. Rajkumar, the Nepalese domestic help of the Duranis, was subjected to polygraph test at CFSL, Delhi.
June 19, 2008: Judicial custody of Dr. Rajesh Talwar extended up to July 2, 2008. An application is moved for a second lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar, as his first lie detection test remained inconclusive. A lie detector test is also conducted on Vijay Mandal, the domestic help of a neighbor of the Talwars.
June 17, 2008: Krishna produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad. CBI applies for further 11 days police custody remand to continue the investigation. The magistrate grants 6 days police custody. He is to be produced before the CBI magistrate, Ghaziabad on June 23, 2008.
A team accompanied by a forensic expert search the room where Rajkumar used to live in Sector 53, Noida. Material seized from the room on June 13, 2008 is forensically examined.
June 20, 2008: Lie detection test of Dr. Rajesh Talwar conducted at CFSL, Delhi.
June 23, 2008: Krishna produced before the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad. CBI requests further custody of Krishna for 4 days for further interrogation and recovery of weapon. The magistrate passes an order extending his police custody by 4 days. He is to be produced before the Court on June 27, 2008.
June 25, 2008: Second lie detection test conducted on Dr. Nupur Talwar. Her first lie detection test was found inconclusive.
June 26, 2008: The CBI declares the case to be a "blind case". Dr. Rajesh Talwar refused bail by the special magistrate, CBI courts, Ghaziabad.
June 27, 2008: Krishna taken to Talwars' residence by the CBI and thereafter produced before the special magistrate, where his bail plea is rejected once again. The Talwars' family friends Duranis' Nepalese domestic help Rajkumar arrested on the suspicion of involvement in the murder. Washed T-shirts with faint human blood stains seized and sent for DNA matching. However, the Duranis (doctors themselves) maintain that the stains could be from the boils that Rajkumar had on his body. Rajkumar had already been subjected to polygraph test, psychological assessment, brain mapping and narco analysis at FSL, Gandhinagar from June 23 to June 26, 2008.
June 28, 2008: Rajkumar produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad and is sent to police custody for 14 days.
June 30, 2008: Krishna's lawyer approaches a Ghaziabad court for bail. Bail is refused as the court that was approached does not have sufficient powers in this case.
CBI joint director in charge of the investigation, Arun Kumar, is recalled to his original cadre in Uttar Pradesh.
June 31, 2008: News channel AAJ TAK, airs reports that Vijay Mandal, a new face, is also involved in the Noida double murder.
July 2, 2008: Dr. Rajesh Talwar is produced before special magistrate, CBI court, Ghaziabad again. His bail plea is rejected and his judicial custody extended till July 11, 2008. CBI says he is still among the suspects.
July 3, 2008: The Supreme court of India rejects a public interest litigation (PIL) case challenging the administration of narco-analysis test on the accused. A bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir refuses to hear the petion, as the petitioner, a lawyers' body, was an unregistered entity.
July 6, 2008: An English daily [9] reveals that on the night the murders were committed, the couple Dr. Rajesh and Dr. Nupur left their flat around midnight and came back around 5 AM. They were at a high society party for which 12 suites were booked in a posh South Delhi hotel.
July 7, 2008: Dr. Nupur Talwar refutes the allegations regarding their absence on the night of the murders. She also expresses her intention to take legal action against the media house.
CBI releases an official statement on their site, stating, "A section of media has reported quoting CBI sources that Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar were not present in their house on the night of 15th May, 2008 and more than a dozen rooms were booked in a hotel in Delhi. It is clarified that the news item is speculative and not true. Investigation of the case is progressing diligently."
Some other TV channels debate the merits of her and CBI's affirmations in the light of glaring gaps in the Talwars' story.
July 9, 2008: Rajkumar, the domestic help of the Durranis, is subjected by CBI to a second narco-analysis test at FSL Bangalore.
July 10, 2008: News reports on some TV channels suggest that the CBI has had a breakthrough on Rajkumar as the culprit and has confessed during the narco-analysis test. He is learned to have committed the murder along with Krishna, Sambhu and Hemraj. The reason for the first murder, as told by Rajkumar, was lust and Hemraj was killed for fear that he might have disclosed information.
July 11, 2008: Vijay Mandal (alias Sambhu) the servant one of the neighbors of the Talwars is arrested by the CBI.
In a press conference, Arun Kumar, Joint Director CBI, states that the CBI is awaiting DNA matching of washed blood stains on Rajkumar's T-shirts. He confirms that the CBI still consideres this a blind case and expresses the hope that the case will be solved soon.
Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Krishna appear before a special CBI court, Ghaziabad to seek bail. Their petitions are heard and Dr. Rajesh Talwar is released on bail, for lack of evidence. Eminent criminal lawyer R. K. Anand undertakes the defence of Krishna.
CBI believes two or three domestic helps and Krishna to be the prime suspects. However, the forensic evidence is not admissible as evidence in the court.
The murder weapon and the two cellphones respectively of Aarushi and Hemraj are still missing.
July 12, 2008: Dr. Rajesh Talwar is freed on bail from the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad. The news of his release brings back widespread media attention to the case.
Vijay Mandal is sent to 3-days' CBI custody by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Dinesh Kumar in Ghaziabad.[10] Vijay Mandal has been accused under 302, 201, 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
July 15, 2008: Vijay Mandal's police custody extended for four more days.[11] The CBI expected to find the murder weapon and the cellphones of Aarushi and Hemraj with Mandal's help.
July 16, 2008: An association of Nepalese citizens alleges that Krishna and Rajkumar are being pressurized to make confessional statements.
July 18, 2008: CBI has not seized any evidence and is yet to receive a crucial forensic report on accused Rajkumar, according to media reports. It has weakened the case against the three prime suspects — Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. The CBI claims near closing of the case when preliminary reports from Hyderabad's Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, suggests that identifying the blood on the T-shirt "may or may not be possible", according to media reports. Separating DNA from garments after a lapse of two months is not always possible, because of the disintegration of the red blood cells on the cloth.
July 19, 2008: Vijay Mandal sent into police custody for four more days.
July 21, 2008: Rastriya Jana Morcha (RJM) chairman Chitra Bahadur K.C. alleges that the two Nepalese nationals Krishna Thapa and Rajkumar were falsely accused by the CBI in the case, in order to save Dr. Rajesh Talwar. The party has decided to raise the issue in the Nepalese parliament. The party will also approach the Nepalese government and the national human rights commission to save the two.
July 22, 2008: A bench comprising of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice Markandey Katju of the supreme court of India instructs the media to be careful in te context of the hearing of a public interest lawsuit that has raises questions on the media coverage of the high-profile murder case. In the probe, the character of the victim's parents was hotly debated, especially that of Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar who was arrested initially as the main accused. However, no adverse observations were made about the compounder Krishna and the other two domestic helps Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. A distinction seems to have been made according to the accused persons' class and national identities.
July 25, 2008: The Police custody of the accused Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal is extended till August 8. The three accused are brought to the Ghaziabad court handcuffed and linked by a rope. The judge objects to the inhuman treatment of the accused and the police officer tenders his apologies.[16]
July 31, 2008: A Hindi channel Aaj Tak airs a news report alleging that Vijay Mandal was drilled with leading information, prior to the narco-analysis tests. Further, there are allegations that Mandal's confessions during the narco-analysis tests have many gaps.
August 8, 2008: The Police custody of the accused Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal is extended for 14 more days, as they are now considered the prime accused.
August 9, 2008: CBI director Ashwani Kumar says [17] the case is still unsolved, as many important corroborative pieces of evidence are yet to be found. However, he fully accepts that it is important that Dr. Rajesh Talwar be exonerated or the sanctity of our family structure will be been challenged.
September 4, 2009: The Central Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad releases a report that Aarushi's vaginal samples were substituted with those of an unknown woman. The correct samples could have helped to establish who killed the teenager, and whether she was sexually assaulted before being stabbed. The clothes that Aarushi was found in were soaked in blood. But the forensic lab received clean clothes.
September 14, 2009: Delhi police recovers Aarushi's mobile phone in Bulandshahr.
Jan 5, 2010: CBI Moves Court to conduct Narco test on Talwar Couple.
May 16, 2010: A prayer meet is conducted by the Talwars in remembrance of their dead daughter Aarushi who was killed on May 16, 2008.
July 21, 2010: Dr.Rajesh Talwar moves the court to have a restraint order passed against the unethical and misleading information being published by some print media outlets.
CBI reportedly seeking help of foreign forensic labs to crack the two year old case.
December 29, 2010: CBI files closure report in Aarushi murder case. The closure report filed in Ghaziabad court says Rajesh Talwar is the sole suspect, and that Krishna, Raj Kumar and Mandal are completely cleared.
January 3, 2011: Ghaziabad court examines the validity of the closure report by CBI citing inadequate evidence against the suspects in the double murder case.[19] As per CBI, the prime suspect is still Rajesh Talwar however the motive of this killing is still unknown.
January 25, 2011: Arushi's father, Dr. Rajesh Talwar, is attacked outside court with a cleaver by a youth called Utsav Sharma in protest against CBI's decision to recall the case and that Utsav was upset that Talwar was not convicted. Utsav had also in protest attacked former police chief S.P.S. Rathore of the Ruchika Girhotra case in February 2010 .
January 30, 2011: People from all walks of life get together to protest at Jantar Mantar, Delhi to press for Justice in the case. Chandigarh based Middle Finger Protests, also known as "Human Rights Protection Group" (credited for its efforts in the movie "No One Killed Jessica") surprised everyone with their presence and banners that read "CBI - Central Bureau of Injustice" and "CBI - Congress Bureau of Investigation". The founder of the group was personally present along with the newly appointed volunteers from Delhi. The group appreciated the fact that the protests in Delhi were initiated by a young girl and her friends.
February 09, 2011: Special CBI court summons Rajesh and Nupur Talwar as accused in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case after taking cognisance of the agency's closure report.