Noida police say move shows case was tough to crack

The CBI submitting its closure report two years after 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and the family’s domestic help Hemraj were found dead in Noida drew mixed responses from Uttar Pradesh Police. Darpan Singh reports.

The CBI submitting its closure report two years after 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and the family’s domestic help Hemraj were found dead in Noida drew mixed responses from Uttar Pradesh Police. Noida police had handled the initial investigation of the case but the CBI had charged the police with shoddy investigation, which, the agency claimed, had resulted in destruction of most of the crime scene evidence.

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“It’s disappointing that even the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to crack the case. But the move shows that the murders were extremely tough to work out. The CBI has no magic wand,” said a top police official, requesting anonymity. UP’s additional director general of police (law and order) Brij Lal said: “I cannot comment on the working of a central investigating agency.”

A special task force inspector, who was associated with the case investigation in Noida, said: “The case was taken away from us abruptly. We felt let down. We still believe that if allowed to continue, we would have cracked it.”

Not only had the UP police failed to crack the case, remarks made by some of its officials during the investigation had also invited public outrage.

Days after the murder, Meerut range inspector general of police (IGP) Gurdarshan Singh had pronounced Aarushi’s father, Dr Rajesh Talwar, the killer. Singh said that Talwar killed his daughter, as well as Hemraj, after seeing the two in an “objectionable but not compromising” position.

The IGP went on to say that Aarushi was upset at her father’s extramarital affair with a close family friend and colleague. The Talwar family had refuted the allegations.

“Some top UP police officials were transferred. The step was taken to make sure that the government could not be accused of trying to create problems in the CBI investigation,” the police official said.