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Parallax View: It is hard to see Dr Talwar as a cold-blooded monster

These days I increasingly find myself thinking what it must be like to be Rajesh Talwar, Aarushi’s

father. There are two ways of looking at it.  The first is the way suggested by the judge at the CBI Court: that he is a murderer who not only killed Hemraj,

his servant but also slaughtered his own daughter, by slitting her throat.

 

   The other is Talwar’s own view of himself: that he is an innocent man whom fate has taken a violent dislike to. First, his beloved daughter was murdered. Then, he was described as ‘characterless’ by the UP police and arrested for her murder. Even after he was released because of lack of evidence, neither the UP police nor the CBI found out who really killed his daughter. Next, he was attacked with a cleaver by a lunatic outside a courtroom and seriously wounded. And now, he has been charged with the murder again.

 

   If the CBI court is right (and bear in mind that Talwar has been charged only because of the court ---- the CBI said that there was not enough evidence for a charge sheet), then Talwar is a pretty screwed up character. Not only did he slash his own child’s throat but he covered-up the murder, wiped away the evidence, enlisted his wife (who must know the truth even if she was not an accomplice) in this enterprise, convinced his larger family and neighbours of his innocence and then, outwitted every technique that the police and the CBI usually rely on (a list that includes custodial interrogation, threats, intimidation, brain mapping, lie-detector tests etc.) Clearly, the man is a cold-blooded monster if the case against him is to be believed.

 

   Except that, somehow, I don’t see him as a monster. I do not dispute that fathers kill their own children. (What are honour killings about, after all?) But everything I have read suggests that such killings emerge out of rage or anger. They are rarely meticulously planned and, like all crimes of rage, are easy enough to solve. But this murder cannot have been a simple crime of any kind of rage or passion. The investigators want us to believe that having killed his daughter, Talwar was cold-blooded enough to avoid being tripped up by any of the police’s ploys and techniques. To cheat a lie detector, to not collapse in jail, to withstand assault and to defy brain-mapping, Talwar must be a criminal mastermind of some kind.

 

   So, here’s my problem: the man does not strike me as being a hardened criminal, let alone a mastermind of any sort. Moreover, as far as I can tell, there is nothing in his life to suggest that he had violent tendencies or that he knew how to cunningly outwit the police or even, that he was a world class liar.

 

   I am prepared to accept that even normally mild-mannered, law-abiding people can sometimes fly off the handle and to do terrible things. But a) I’m not prepared to believe that once the rage has subsided they can keep up the façade of innocence for two years and b) why should Talwar have flown off the handle in the first place? Nobody seems to offer any explanation for this.

 

   Classic crime investigations rest on three basic tenets:  opportunity, motive and method. Who had the opportunity to commit the crime? Who had motive? And how did they commit this crime? (Did they leave behind DNA, fingerprints etc? Were they spotted by witnesses? And so on.)

 

   So far, the CBI has shown that there was opportunity. The Talwars were the only people who, we know for sure, were in the house when Aarushi and Hemraj were killed.

 

   But in two years, no motive has emerged. Why would the Talwars want to murder their own daughter? The UP police theory of honour killing (they must have caught her sleeping with the servant) says more about the UP police than it does about the Talwars. There is, first of all, no evidence of any unnatural intimacy between Hemraj and Aarushi. And secondly there is nothing in the record of the Talwars to suggest that even if they discovered that Hemraj was abusing Aarushi they would respond by slitting their daughter’s throat.

 

   You would think that anybody charging a man with the most heinous crime of all ---- killing his own child ---- would feel obliged to explain why a father should kill his daughter. But no, the CBI does not seem to think that this even matters.

 

"Perhaps new conclusive evidence pointing to their guilt will emerge. But after so many months of confusion and wasted time, I seriously doubt if such evidence will be found."

   The question of method is more complicated. We know that there is no physical evidence because the flatfoots of the UP police contaminated the crime scene and did not bother to collect evidence. By the time the CBI entered the picture, the crime scene had vanished. So not only do we not have fingerprints, DNA etc. we also have no murder weapon (variously described as a Khukri, scalpel or golf club depending on who the police are trying to pin the murder on).

 

   What we have instead is a lot of contradictory speculation about so-called evidence. Apparently, somebody turned on the internet router in Aarushi’s room after the murder. So this proves the Talwars entered the bedroom. Why then didn’t they notice that their daughter was dead?

 

   But the CBI has also noted that the Talwars have an unsecured connection.  Moreover, when investigators were in the room after the murder, the router went on and off, though nobody in the Talwar residence was logging on.

 

   Then, there’s the business of sound. How come the Talwars, who live in the same house did not hear Aarushi’s screams? Good question. Except that the investigators conducted an experiment by putting on the air conditioners at the same time of night that the murder took place and then checking to see if any noise from Aarushi’s room was audible in the Talwar’s bedroom. They found that no sounds could be heard.

 

   For every question raised about  the crime and Rajesh Talwar’s behaviour in its aftermath, there is some answer. No clear cut case emerges from any of the doubts that investigators have now expressed.

 

   So, I’m going to stick my neck out. I don’t know if Dr. Talwar is the murderer. Only God and the Talwars themselves can be sure of that. But I do know the case against them is so full of holes as to be laughable ---- no motive, no physical evidence and no eyewitnesses. All that the investigators have is opportunity. And that is hardly enough to build a case on.

 

   In the circumstances, the right thing to do is to let the charges drop. Even if Talwar did it, there is simply no real evidence against him.

 

   And think of the alternative. Suppose he did not do it. Suppose he is telling the truth. Then, consider how unjustly he is being treated --- by us, by the CBI and by  life itself.

 

   If what his neighbours and friends say is true and the Talwars were a normal, well-adjusted suburban family, then how terrible must the events of the last two years have been! Imagine waking up one morning to find your child dead. Imagine being hounded, humiliated and arrested by the UP police. Imagine the horror of a constant trial by media. Imagine the shock of being attacked by a madman wielding a cleaver. And now, imagine the torture of being tried for a terrible crime that you did not commit.

 

   Perhaps, the Talwars are lying. Perhaps new conclusive evidence pointing to their guilt will emerge. But after so many months of confusion and wasted time, I seriously doubt if such evidence will be found.

 

   All we will get is the spectacle of two more lives being destroyed. Aarushi died quickly. We will end up murdering Dr. Talwar over a long period of time --- and in the full glare of the media.

 

Picture courtesy: Hindustantimes.com


 

CommentsComments

  • Livleen Singh 22 Feb 2011

    Further, There was no evidence but there is no other clue in the case..

    So acc. to law what is best suited in this case is that CBI to declare itself useless and ya Indian Govt. must apply for internship of CBI officials with FBI or Scotland Yard.
    This has to be done as the apex investigating authority cannot crack the case.
    Coming to UP police they just let them wash the premises of the house as was shown on a news channel so wat exactly now are they looking for......

  • Livleen Singh 22 Feb 2011

    There is a system which has to be followed, we have the laws, we have the courts though there are some deficits in the system but u cannot go out of the ambit of law.
    Lets take a very good example here:-
    let us believe Mr. Talwar is an innocent person but can u tel me who all are behind the sex rackets or drug mafias they are all innocent looking people who live a very good and respectable life styles. Law has to take its course and let it take it.

  • sajid 19 Feb 2011


    A very sad tale to believe.

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