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Nafiah Farooq Contractor

Kishan Thingbaijam

Lecturer, Department of English

Mount Carmel College

Contemporary Indian Writing in English

3 September 2020

Critical Analysis of the Aarushi Talwar- Hemraj Double Murder Case

The repugnance of the double murder case of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj Banjade was a

shocking blow to the entire nation. To add to the horrors of it, the murders occurred within the

confines of an urban middle class home in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Inside a locked house, with the

presence of an urbane couple, their child and a servant, there was not one but two gruesome

murders that stunned families to a horrifying silence. The police investigation which was

underway was deemed unsatisfactory and with intensified political and public fanfare, the case

was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The case sent shockwaves to the nation when the CBI announced that the parents- Dr.Rajesh

Talwar and Nupur Talwar were the murderers. Avirook Sen’s book, “Aarushi” is an account of

the investigation that followed the murder of a child who would have turned fourteen the night

she was murdered. While it is not a watertight account, this is certainly a solid retelling of this

appalling event.

Starting from the morning on which Aarushi’s body was discovered on her bed, in a pool of

blood, the investigation undertaken by the police was disastrous. A crowd of people walked in

and out of the room and the entire room was wiped clean even before anyone could think of
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forensics or crime scene photography. There is a sort of innate trust that a commoner places on

the policing system but even if that were to be kept aside, there is a degree of competence one

expects from a working professional which was completely absent here.

According to Sen, when they failed to find any sort of evidence to help them proceed, the police

went ahead and did a press meeting in which they made an announcement that sex was involved

in the murder. This was a time when news channels were competing for better ratings and hence

the twist of double homicide with a sexual undertone added to it. What people failed to realise or

chose to ignore was that calling a thirteen year old child, a sexual promiscuous individual was

extremely disrespectful. In the race to win more ratings, such minor humane feelings were swept

under the carpet. The media frenzy went so overboard that the Supreme Court finally intervened

and asked to stop ‘trial by media’ and focus on the courts instead.

By the time the investigation was handed over to the CBI, the public and media pressure became

intense and the first team led by Arun Kumar gets on the job. But before the investigation began

to make sense there was a change of guard at the top of the CBI. As with all leadership changes,

there is a team reshuffle and the next set of investigators are called in. This is where Sen reserves

his most acerbic criticism for the investigators A.G.L Kaul and Dr.Dahiya who in a more fancy

language he calls incompetent, blundering egoists whose only objective was to close the case no

matter what it took.

Sen points out multiple instances where he questions the credibility of Kaul and also calls his

deductions as farfetched. The case lands up in court and the Talwars are declared guilty. Even

here, Sen highlights that even before the hearing commenced on the case, the judge presiding

over the case had decided that the parents were guilty. The events that follow the murder are
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shocking to behold and one that we hope never befalls on another individual. Sen makes no

secret of the fact that he is on the side of the Talwars here.

A combination of bad luck, incompetence and political interference made the case the mess it is.

This is a harrowing account of how the justice system can go wrong and fail our expectations.

India witnessed not only a botched investigation by the Noida police that made the case

unsolvable due to the mishandling of the available forensic evidence, but also an unpardonable

flip-flop by the CBI, which gave a clean chit to parents Dr.Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, then

pronounced them guilty of twin murder. The Aarushi Talwar case is the perfect example of the

prevailing aberrations causing distortions in the system at each stage. Fixing it without any delay

is imperative.
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Bibliography

Aarushi . www.amazon.com/Aarushi-Avirook-Sen-ebook/dp/B06XYNF6GM.

Lawstreet.co. (2020). Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: A New Turn Of Events. https://lawstreet.co/crime-

police-and-law/aarushi-talwar-murder-case-a-new-turn-of-events.
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