New Delhi, July 10
Despite a special court of
the Central Bureau of Investigation holding Rajesh and Nupur Talwar
guilty of murdering their daughter and a help, a
journalist-turned-author has come out with a book saying there was "no
evidence to prove the talwars were guilty."
Avirook Sen looked
into the details of the double murder case, in which 13-year-old Aarushi
Talwar and the family help 45-year-old Hemraj Banjade were murdered in
their Noida home on May 15, 2008.
After prolonged
investigation and trial, the CBI court held the parents guilty of the
two murders and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The case is on
appeal. Sen says in his book 'Aarushi' that the parents did not get
justice.
"The investigation polarised everybody. I feel that
there was a set of people who felt that the Talwars were guilty and the
other set who thought they weren't. But one must not forget the
evidence itself. So when we have opinions taking control of the whole
issue - evidence itself sometimes gets undermined - that's what
happened in the case," Sen told IANS.
According to the
introduction to the book brought out by Penguin, the Aarushi case got
"higher ratings (in the media) than Indian Premier League games. The
idea of the teenager and the servant engaged in coitus intrigued
middle-class Indians." It becasme the most talked about double murder
in the country.
"If there is a factual indication of the Talwars
committing the crime, they should be prosecuted the same way everyone
is, but I don't see evidence proving them guilty," Sen said.
He
said that his book was about something very fundamental - "miscarriage
of justice". There were a lot of "plants" in the beginning in the media
that continued to influence the case throughout, he added.
Looking
at the mystery behind the murder, newspapers and television channels
had put forth their own interpretations and predictions. There were
headlines reading 'Dr Death and the House of Horror' and 'Attack Showed
Clinical Precision and Planning', as recounted in Sen's book.
"There
were a lot of unnamed reports by media which called the Talwars
wife-swappers with no evidence or attribution. The perception in the
public mind of the Talwar's lifestyle, changed considerably because of
these plants. Both the investigators and the media were responsible for
the perception," Sen maintained, adding that the media failed to do its
job in verifying facts.
Trying to pick holes in the
presecution's stand, Sen said that one of the crucial pieces of evidence
was a pillow cover on which Hemraj's blood was found. "The forensic
scientist B.K. Mohapatra insisted that Hemraj's pillow cover was seized
from Aarushi's room, suggesting Hemraj was killed there. (He)
eventually admitted this wasn't the case," the book says.
"It
dates back to early 2011 at Allahabad High Court where the photographs
of this pillow and pillow cover were shown. If a forensic item was
shown, it means clearly the seal was broken. Who had taken these
photographs and what was the integrity of the piece of evidence, were
questions that CBI never answered," Sen contended. He said the seal
could be broken on a court order.
Sen's book details his
interview with judge Shyam Lal and his son, Ashutosh. The son told him
that he was the one who typed the beginning (of the judgment)
personally. "The First 10 pages," Ashutosh told Sen, adding that the
210-page judgment took more than a month to type.
"Judge Shyam
Lal pronounced his judgment on 25 November 2013. Tanveer Ahmed Mir,
counsel for the defence, began his final arguments on 24 October. Over
the next two weeks he would argue on a total of 24 circumstances that he
felt should lead to acquittal," said Sen in the book aimed at showing
that the judgment was being written even before the defence finished its
arguments.
Sen said that lawyer for the Talwars had told him on a TV show that he would use the material in the book for their appeal.
(Bhavana Akella can be contacted at [email protected])
