‘Challenge was to look differently’

A new documentary on Aarushi Talwar’s murder with fresh analyses and new angles, will be aired today

Fourteen-year-old Aarushi Talwar’s murder has kept the nation hooked since May 16, 2008. Books, movies, discussions on national TV channels examined, probed, and debated the case. Aarushi was found dead in her room in L 32, Jalvayu Vihar, Noida. Hemraj, the domestic help was missing and a day later, his body was found on the terrace.

Botched up evidence gathering and shoddy investigations made a mess of the case. If a new twist pointed fingers at Krishna, Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal’s involvement in the case, the next turn by the following investigating agency would hint at the involvement of Aarushi’s dentist parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.

Guilty and acquitted

In 2013, the CBI trial court found the parents guilty and they were imprisoned in Dasna Jail. And four years later, on October 13, 2017, the High Court of Allahabad, acquitted the parents.

Mayurica Biswas started following the case in 2016 when Rajesh and Nupur appealed the verdict in the High Court of Allahabad. The journalist and broadcast television writer-director-producer closely tracked the proceedings over the next year and half.

The new arguments, fresh angles and different versions made it to a true-crime documentary series

Aarushi – Beyond Reasonable Doubt (2017). The 48-minute four episode series chronologically tracks the story from Krishna’s arrest till the High Court order.

Need for long form

“We felt there was a need for documentary,” Mayurica said over the phone. “There were films and books on the case but not anything which would tell the story in long form. We wanted to tell the story as it is, objectively. Today telling the story the way we want to because of the content and platforms around us, is possible,” adds the founder and creative director of Storyteller Films. Fortunately for Mayurica, the case reopened just when she set out with the project. “To start off, it was difficult because everyone had an opinion about it but the Talwars’ appeal in High Court helped. Everything was heard all over again giving us new material, new angles. The challenge was also to look at it differently from what already had been presented in books, films and writings,” says the filmmaker, an alumnus of Baldwin Girls High School and Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru.

Crucial testimony

The layout of L32 and Bharti Mandal’s - crucial testimony was discussed in detail throwing light on new possibilities. “The court asked the prosecution to explain the layout. Mandal’s testimony about the door, was scrutinised deeply. It went in Talwars’ favour.” Mandal was working as maid in Talwar’s household and the first one to come to the house that day.

“There was a lot of talk about how the router went off suggesting that Rajesh was awake for long that night. We got a computer analyst to analyse how much time does 11 MB date take to be consumed. It takes about five minutes and Rajesh said he wrote a few mails before going to sleep.”

Deception detection

Mayurica also got a deception detection expert to analyse the crucial testimonies. International forensic pathologist, blood splatter examination, were other investigations done independently by Mayurica in the documentary. “However, all the material provided to them was secondary. That can’t be helped as the crime scene doesn’t exist any more. We don’t have the evidence, only the reports. The experts studied the material, did research and only then agreed to be featured. These tests are not done in India. What we wanted to do was to move forward. I was in Allahabad all through the appeal and felt there was a scope for fresh analysis.”

Follow through

Mayurica also hunted down Krishna and Rajkumar in Nepal who spoke but not about the murder. “Krishna has lost it and is in a bad shape. Rajkumar is married, has a job now but not doing well. We couldn’t track Vijay. They spoke to us about their lives. We also found Hemraj’s wife who is very angry. There has been no closure for her.” Mayurica also tried hard to get in touch with CBI trial court sessions judge Shyam Lal who held Talwars’ guilty however, he didn’t agree to come on camera. The film has quotes from many other seminal players from the story - Fiza, Aarushi’s best friend, Arun Kumar, former joint director, CBI, who was investigating the case, Javed Ahmed, joint director, CBI who led the investigation post Arun Kumar’s transfer, journalists Shoma Chaudhury, Rajat Kain, Sanjeev Yadav who covered the case extensively, Rebecca John, Talwars’ legal advisor and lawyers from the prosecution team, all presenting their side of the story.