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The Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murder case, which enthralled and horrified India in equal measure, reached its last chapter today.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court found Aarushi’s parents -- Rajesh and Nupur Talwar -- guilty of killing their only daughter and their servant.
The case continues to make headlines thanks to its many shocking twists and turns as well as for the careless investigation by police teams and probe agencies.
The CBI had its task cut out with the high-profile case. It had to undo the mess Noida police had created while probing the case.
CBI sleuths ran into several roadblocks when the case went to trial. They could not produce the results of a narco-analysis test as evidence and it took them several days to find the murder weapon.
They had to build their case from scratch and draw up a chain of events leading up to the murder.
Rajkumar, a domestic help at the residence of Anita Durani, a friend of the Talwars’, was subjected to a narco-analysis test.
Rajkumar told the CBI that the murder was an act of revenge by Krishna, a compounder at Dr Talwar’s clinic, who wanted to avenge his humiliation by killing his employer’s daughter.
“We were drinking together with another person called Shambu. Krishna told us he had been insulted by Talwar. Then Shambu and Krishna went up to Aarushi’s room and killed her. Hemraj, a domestic help, witnessed the crime so they had to kill him too,” Rajkumar reportedly admitted during the narco-analysis test.
Shambu, during his interrogation, also corroborated Rajkumar’s version of events.
While the bodies were found inside the Talwars’ residence, the blood stains had been wiped out and the murder weapon was missing.
The CBI’s lawyer had claimed in court that despite Rajkumar’s testimony to the contrary, neither Krishna nor Shambhu could have gained entry to the house since the door was steadfastly locked.
Here is a chronology of the disturbing case:
On May 16 2008, 13-year-old Aarushi was found dead in her bedroom at her parents' house in Noida.
Police initially assumed that the Talwars’ domestic help Hemraj had killed their daughter and then run away. But they had to discard that theory after Hemraj’s body was found on the roof.
Dr Rajesh Talwar was the first suspect to be arrested in connection to the case.
After Noida police spectacularly muddled up the case, it was handed over to the CBI.
Both Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were subjected to neurological tests by the probe agency.
The CBI also arrested Krishna, Shambu and Rajkumar, but they were eventually released as police could not find any concrete links between them and the murder.
Failing to make any headway in the case, the CBI tried to close the case but the Ghaziabad court rejected its plea for doing so.
The CBI then accused Rajesh and Nupur Talwar of committing the murders and destroying the evidence.
The couple approached the Supreme Court and urged it to drop the trial but the apex court refused to do so.
The special CBI court on November 25 found Rajesh and Nupur Talwar guilty of the double murder.