CBI’s flip-flops in the case

The probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the 2008 May Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj Banjade murder case threw diametrically opposite findings in course of its 30-month old investigations. HT reports.

The probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the 2008 May Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj Banjade murder case threw diametrically opposite findings in course of its 30-month old investigations.

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The special investigation unit took over the probe from Noida police on May 31, 2008. In July 2008, then CBI director Vijay Shankar told media: “I say this with confidence that CBI has opened up this blind case and we know who were the killers.”

Though CBI could not submit a chargesheet within the stipulated 30-day limit, it informed the media that it found three accused: Medical assistant Krishna Thadarai, then working with Dr Rajesh Talwar, domestic helps Rajkumar Durrani and Vijay Mandal.

In September 2009, CBI Director Ashwani Kumar who took over from Shankar, disagreed with the agency’s probe findings as he felt that the three accused did not have the clout to have managed to contaminate/swap the vaginal swabs drawn from Aarushi's body at the Noida district hospital where a post mortem was done on her.

Kumar then re-constituted the special investigation team and directed it to “re-investigate”. This team held the Talwars responsible in its closure report.