Aarushi murder case: demand for justice in social media

Social networking sites are abuzz with activity in anticipation of the verdict in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.

Social networking sites are abuzz with activity in anticipation of the verdict in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.

A special court is expected to deliver the order in the case on Monday.

Several pages created in the memory of the teenager have registered an increase in ‘likes’ and the number of posts.

A Facebook page — ‘Give Aarushi Talwar Justice’ — has over 50,000 likes. Updates on the trial in the case were posted on the page regularly.

Aarushi, a class 9 student at a well-known Noida school, was found murdered at her L-block flat in Jalvayu Vihar, Noida on May 15, 2008 -- a couple of days before her birthday. Aarushi was herself very active on social networking. Soon after her murder, the media ran several stories on her Orkut profile which had the tagline ‘love life’.

Another closed group on Facebook. ‘Aarushi wants justice. I want justice. We all want justice’, has 287 members. It has several photographs of Aarushi with messages demanding justice.“The verdict is coming too late. She died five years ago; the case has become a joke. I just wish her soul rests in peace. She can never come back, but will she ever get justice?,” posted Manakr Prajapati.A Twitter account ‘Justice4Aarushi’ has 1,476 followers. “I just wish that whatever the court decides is fair. She is not here to defend anything. But definitely we don’t want another Aarushi between us,” posted Shuvam on the page.Aarushi had a blog too. It says ‘We regret day and night. But overcoming those regrets is not that easy’ and has a picture of her with her friends. The blog has been inactive since March 16, 2009. One of the blog entries on this page with the title ‘Awesome Foursome’ mentions four close friends of Aarushi.

When HT approached the neighbours and the tenants at the Talwars’ flat in Noida at Jalvayu Vihar, all of them refused to comment.