Citation: (1984) 2 SCC 627

Bench: Bala Krishna Narayana, Arvind Kumar Mishra-I
Court:High Court

Brief of Facts:

·       The Talwar family consisting of, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, both dentists by profession; their daughter, 14-year-old Aarushi who was a student Delhi Public School; and their house help, Hemraj, resided in Sector-25, Noida.

·       On 16 May 2008, Aarushi Talwar was found murdered in her bedroom. The help, Hemraj was nowhere to be seen and the parents immediately started to push the narrative of Hemraj of killing their daughter.

·       The neighbours and police were informed. However, before the police reached the scene, it had already been tampered with. People were going in and out of the house, and most of the fingerprints that the police lifted were no longer of use and smudged. The parents allegedly kept pressuring the police to find Hemraj and stop wasting time around their residence. They reportedly offered the police Rs. 25,000 to go arrest Hemraj from his Village.

·       The next day on 17 May, the decomposing body of Hemraj was found on the terrace. The possibility of Hemraj being the killer was immediately ruled out and the police shifted their focus to the parents.

·       The parents claimed to not have heard anything while the murders must have taken place, even though, Aarushi’s room was a mere 7-8 feet away from theirs.

·       What followed was along drawn out investigation by the police and the CBI alongside the horrific Media Trial.

Judgement:

After a Sessions Court Trial in November, 2013 by the CBI,Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were sentenced to life in prison. The decision was heavily critiqued for being founded on circumstantial and unconvincing evidence and the Talwars’ even took their appeal to the Allahabad High Court.

The Allahabad high court had exonerated jailed parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar of the charges of killing their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, citing a lack of clinching evidence and the possibility that an outsider could have committed the crimes. The Parents managed to get acquitted on 12 October 2017 and have remained free ever since. Legally, the case remains unsolved and the family points fingers at the CBI, local police, and the media for ruining an investigation that should’ve resulted in their daughter’s murderer being identified.

Conclusion:

The principal “Innocent until Proven guilty” plays a pivotal in the Indian Judiciary.

The Murder case of Aarushi Talwar, also known as “The Noida Double Murder” is known to paradoxical and based on circumstantial evidence entirely, paired with the media pressure. The wide media coverage received by this case, was both positive and negative. While it pointed out the faults of the investigating officers and the CBI, the media put the parents on trial, exaggerating s claims and theories, thus tarnishing their reputations and characters. Even the deceased, /Aarushi was not spared. The Media pushed the theory of the parents killing Aarushi and Hemraj in a fit of rage, due to finding them in an objectionable state, claiming that the two had been pursuing a relationship. The media continued to push this assertion and even the Investigation Inspector General Officer in Meerut, in a press conference concluded that the girl was characterless and that the father due to sudden and grave provocation committed a double homicide. The Media has been criticised for pressuring and pushing out false narratives. Due to the Circumstantial evidence, lack of witnesses and the case being declared as “blind”, there was no concrete theory, thus harassing and vilifying the parents, who lost their only child, was cruel.

The answer to the question, “Who killed Aarushi Talwar?” has still not received closure. There exist too many loopholes, inconsistencies, and errors in the case to conduct a speedy and fair trial. One can only hope for the appropriate advancements in investigation and the criminal judicial system to reach a conclusion and justice to be served.