INTERNAL ASSESSMENT II

CONTEMPORARY LAWYERING

MOVIE REVIEW: TALWAR

(Citation method: Harvard’s Bluebook Citation method, 20th edition)

Name: Shubhit Gaur

Class: BA LLB (Division D)

PRN: 18010125346
 CONTENTS

MOVIE REVIEW: TALWAR ........................................................................................................ 1

PLOT SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 3

LEGAL PROVISIONS/PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE FILM ................................................................... 5

INDIAN PENAL CODE ,1860.................................................................................................. 5

INDIAN EVIDENCES ACT, 1882 ........................................................................................... 5

CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950 ......................................................................................... 6

SOCIAL ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED .......................................................................................................... 7

CLASS DIVIDE.......................................................................................................................... 7

CORRUPTION AND INEFFICIENCY IN PUBLIC OFFICES ................................................ 7

MANUFACTURING OF OPINION BY THE MEDIA .............................................................................. 7

HONOR KILLING ........................................................................................................................... 7

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ......................................................................................... 8

 PLOT SUMMARY
The 2015 Hindi film ‘Talwar’ is based on the infamous Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.

The film opens with Dr. Nutan Tandon (played by Konkana Sen Sharma) who wakes up to
discover that her daughter Shruti Tandon has been murdered. She wakes up her husband Dr.
Ramesh Tandon (Neeraj Kabi) and they come to know that their domestic help Khempal is
missing. They suspect him to be the murderer of their daughter. And now the Investigation is
handed over to the Police. Even the police seem to be convinced that Khempal was involved in
the murder. But it later Khempal’s body was found on the terrace of the apartment. The police
have been shown to have a very casual attitude towards the whole cases. The incompetent police
do not handle the evidence cautiously and also seems to be too eager to jump to conclusions.
When they were questioning Tandon’s compounder Kanhaiya, he told them that Tendons’
engaged in sexual relationship outside marriage and when Shruti came to know about this she
was hurt and in order to take revenge from her parents she got into a relationship with Khempal.
The police seemed to have been in a hurry and form a theory that Ramesh came to know about
the Shruti’s illicit relationship with Khempal. Filled with rage, he attacked both of them with a
golf club and killed them. Declaring this to be case of honor killing Ramesh Tandon was arrested
by the Noida police.

This case got wide media attention where channels were promoting theories of how the Tendons’
might have planned and executed the murder of their daughter.

The case is then handed over the CDI (standing in for CBI). The CDI team led by Joint Director
Ashwin Kumar (played by Irfan) and ACP Vedanta find several discrepancies in the
investigation of the police. As they start working on the case their suspicion falls on Tendons’
compounder Kanhaiya. They also conduct a nacre test on the Kanhaiya which further strengthens
their suspicion on him. The Tandons’ were officially exonerated by the CDI. But just as Ashwin
was about to conclude his investigation, his senior officer Ram Shankar Pillai (Prakash Belwadi)
retires and is replaced by JX Dixit( Shishir Sharma) .
The new CDI chief Dixit disapproves of Ashwin’s ways of going about the case. He is forced to
step down. The CDI formed a new probe team which was led by Paul. This team supported the
theory of the Noida police and also started collecting evidence that would implicate the Tandon’s
in the case.

At the end there is roundtable meeting where both the teams present their theories and defend
them with their respective arguments. The Home Ministry finds the evidence given by the Paul
team to be insufficient to charge the Tandons and neither does it completely agree with Ashwin’s
theory which accused Kanhaiya. Therefore, CDI files closure report in the Ghaziabad District
Court. The Tandons’ then file a case in the court to resume proceedings as they were not satisfied
with the CDI closure report and wanted the murderer of their daughter to be punished. The court
dismissed CDI closure report and ordered the CDI to resume investigation making the parents an
accused in the case and after one and a half years Tandons’ were convicted for the murder of
Shruti and Khempal.
 LEGAL PROVISIONS/PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE FILM
INDIAN PENAL CODE ,1860

First of all, this was a case of murder. Whoever the culprit was would have been tried under
section 302 of the Indian Penal Code that is slapped against the offence of murder.

Section 300 OF IPC: Culpable homicide leads to murder when:

1. If the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or

2. If it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be
likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused.

3. If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury
intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.

4. If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in
all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits
such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as
aforesaid.

Section 302 OF IPC: Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or
1[imprisonment for life] and shall also be liable to fine.

INDIAN EVIDENCES ACT, 1882

Section 145: As per this section, a witness may be called upon for cross examination for
questions pertaining to the matter at hand and such testimony by the witness shall be counted as
an evidence in the court of law. In the ambit of this section, the procedure of “Deception
Detection Test” is included whereby the witness is drugged and brain mapping is done thereafter
over questioning. There are scenes in which Narco tests are conducted on one of the accused. If
in a case, the accused of the case fails to Co-operate with the Investigation, such tests may be
carried out.1 However, such Narco tests which were done against the will and consent of the
witnesses shall not be admissible in court.2 .

Section 24: This section particularly talks about confessions obtained out of inducement or
threat flowing from a public officer to be inadmissible by court. In the movie, the report by the
first CDI team was derailed because the investigating officer was allegedly found on the lines of
forcing a person to become approver in court.

CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950

Even though the officers could have conducted narco test for getting help in investigation work
but the same was done against the will and consent of the person subjected to such tests. This
leads to the attraction of the following articles of the Constitution:

Article 20(3): ‘Right against self-incrimination which states that no person accused of an
offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself/herself, and their subjection to Narco
test, whereby their incapable of holding this right, being in a drugged intoxicated state is also a
violation of this provision.

Article 21: ‘Right to life and personal liberty ‘has been judicially expanded to include a ‘right
against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’ and Deception Detection test’s administration
raises serious question of professional ethics and violation of human rights of individuals.
Moreover, such tests are also questioned as against the ‘right to privacy’, which is now a part of
Article 21.3

We also see in roundtable conference towards the end of the film where Ashwin reiterates the
most popular principle of Criminal Law “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one
innocent suffers” (also known as the Blackstone formulation).

1
Dinesh Dalmia v. State. Dinesh Dalmia v. State, Crl. R.C. No. 259 of 2006.
2
Smt. Selvi and Ors Vs State of Karnataka AIR 2010 SC 1974
3
K.S. Puttaswami vs Union of India and others AIR 2017 SC 4161
 SOCIAL ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED
CLASS DIVIDE
The film shows the class divide that exists in the urban towns of India. The various characters in
the film belong to different classes. The Tandons’ were dentists and belonged to the upper
middle-class section of the society whereas Khempal, Tandons’ driver and Kanhiaya were
migrants who were doing lowly paid jobs. We also see in a scene where Ramesh shouts at
Kanhaiya for not having complied to his instructions and Kanhaiya feels humiliated and nurses’
negative feelings for his master.

CORRUPTION AND INEFFICIENCY IN PUBLIC OFFICES

The film highlights the flaw in the Police investigation procedure. The Police fails to notice and
contaminates various key evidence, compromising the crime scene that could have led them to
the murder. Moreover, the internal tussle between the erstwhile and present CDI director for the
fame of taking credit for the double-murder case and such politics lead to failure of the legal
system as one director tampers with evidence deliberately that could have led to proper disposal
of the case or his own personal gain. Moreover, a side of personal relationships affecting
professional demeneour is shown where the new CDI director is allegedly pushes the case in the
direction claimed by the police as the police head overlooking the case comes out to be his
batch-mate.

MANUFACTURING OF OPINION BY THE MEDIA

The role of the media in this case was utterly irresponsible and condemnable. Even before the
courts had stepped in, they had already decided that Tandons’ were responsible for the murder.
The channels did not shy away from creating sensational stories about the sex life of Shruti, The
Tandons’ and also promoted conspiracy theories holding the Tandons’ responsible for the death
of Shruti and Khempal. It was very unfortunate that the Tendons’ had to suffer greatly due to this
‘media trial’.

HONOR KILLING
Though the movie seemed to be on the lines of showing that the teenage girl was not
actually killed by her own parents, but the case being a twisted one, with a lot of controversy,
whose actual truth was yet unconcluded, a part of the theme was based on the practice of
“Honor Killing”, the stigmas leading up to the brutal act and its aftermath.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

The movie ‘Talwar’ was based on a real-life incident where the courts gave their decision in the
landmark case of “Rajesh Talwar and Others vs Central Bureau of Investigation and Others”4.
Justice Sudhir Agarwal in the given case, convicting the parents to be guilty of murder of their
only daughter after looking at all the facts and circumstances revolving around the case and
evidences put forward to him. This leads us to a conclusion whatever may be the actual
transactions, the courts are tied to give the judgement based upon evidences which are presented
and which are also admissible. A whole lot of evidences in the case which would have helped
decide the matter conclusively were rendered ‘Inadmissible’ owing to unprofessional conduct of
the Investigating agencies who either used inhuman, unlawful means to procure evidences,
confessions or tampered with the evidence due to internal politics. Crime scenes were blatantly
compromised due to the sheer inefficiency of the police officers. In the light of the aforesaid,
following suggestions are presented:

 Professional Training programs must be introduced for the investigative agencies on

human rights and Work Ethics of a public officer.
 Penalties and rewards must be set in place for indulging private matters into a working
case as deterrent and incentives respectively.
 Role of media should be restricted in cases of heinous nature to such an extent where it is
reasonable and does not encroach the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19
and simultaneously helps in effective investigations.
 Guidelines must be framed over the constitutional validity of ‘Deception Detection Tests’
and lay out circumstances in which they can be conducted along with mirroring penalties
for violating them so that constitutional and human rights of an individual can be
preserved.

4
Rajesh Talwar and Others vs Central Bureau of Investigation and Others 2013 (83) ACC 283