Doctors suspect more in the case

Shock and disbelief has gripped the doctors’ community in the Capital, reports Jaya Shroff.

Shock and disbelief has gripped the doctors’ community in the Capital. And the question that is on everyone’s mind, irrespective of his or her personal acquaintance with the Talwars, is — “Why did Dr Rajesh Talwar murder his own daughter — if he has actually done so?”

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Meanwhile, psychiatrists and psychologists are saying that there is a lot more than what the police have to say in this case. If going by the police version — that Aarushi was found in “an objectionable position” with the servant — the father’s first reaction would have been either to slap the daughter or beat up the servant and not drug them before slitting their throats in separate areas in the house, say experts. The doctors are saying that from what the police have shown it seems the murder was premeditated.

“From what we have gathered from the police and post mortem reports, it is unclear whether the crime was actually a spontaneous reaction to what the doctor saw in Aarushi’s bedroom. There is a lot more hidden in this case,” says Dr Sandeep Vohra, consultant psychiatrist at Apollo hospital.

“One resorts to such extreme measures — where a father kills his child — only when there is a perceived threat to his reputation. In keeping the survival instinct in mind, this can be the only plausible explanation,” he adds.

“It may be premature to jump the gun and declare the father as the culprit especially as the validity of the claims made by the police are still to be established,” says Dr Rajesh Sagar, associate professor at the Department of Psychiatry at AIIMS.

“But taking the larger Indian picture — where there is a history of female foeticide and honour killings in the garb of religion and caste — one can’t say that such brutal murders don’t happen. But yet again, the motive for the killing has to be established before one really takes the case forward,” he adds.

Some doctors, however, are upset about the hype. “It will only play havoc on the mind of the less literate. The one question they will have is — if the wealthy and the educated can kill, so can we,” said a doctor from a government hospital, unwilling to be named.