‘I don’t think the Talwars killed Aarushi’

“In the eyes of most, guilty or not, you could almost read the words ‘show mercy’...There was none of that in Nupur Talwar...If you were searching for emotions on her face, the only that you might have found was determination,” says Avirook Sen, author of the book, Aarushi. —file photo

Three years ago, senior journalist Avirook Sen was covering the trial in the Aarushi murder case for a Mumbai-based newspaper when he realised that many prosecution witnesses had gone back on their statements on record before the court. This prompted him to bring “true” facts before people in the form of a book titled “Aarushi”, which hit the stands earlier this week.

Speaking to The Hindu about his book, Mr. Sen recalled that when Aarushi was found murdered in her bedroom on May 16, 2008, he was working on his first book sitting miles away in a foreign land.

“I got attached to it [the case] in 2012 when the Mumbai Mirror editor called me and asked me to cover the trial on a daily basis. I was staying in Gurgaon and travelled 55 kilometres daily to reach the court. Slowly, I got sucked into it,” said Mr. Sen.

“One of the many things that troubled me during the trial was that every key witness for the prosecution had told one story at the time of investigation and a substantially different in the court,” he said.

He added that though the media had labelled it an open-and-shut case, he was surprised to find the prosecution witnesses going back on their statements and not remembering, or saying new things. “To every uncomfortable question the cross-examiner posed, constable Chunnilal (a witness) smiled and said: “ Dhyaan nahi hai [I can’t remember]. In a page and one of the transcripts of his testimony, this phrase appeared 18 times. It became a joke in the court,” reads an excerpt from The Trial section of the book.

Punching holes in the prosecution’s case, another excerpt reads: “...the CBI stuck stubbornly to the line that traces of Hemraj’s blood were found in Aarushi’s room. Eventually, it became clear that the agency had been misleading the court. Hemraj’s pillow cover...was unsealed and displayed. A cloth tag attached to it said: ‘Pillow and pillow cover, blood stained (from servant’s room”)’”.

About the Talwars, Mr. Sen said: “In a murder trial, you have to judge as an individual in terms of the evidence. Based on the evidence presented before the court, I do not consider the Talwars to have committed the murder. It is a resounding No.”

However, being a journalist himself, Mr. Sen said he was “deeply disappointed with the coverage the case got”.

“It was a learning experience for me as well. I learnt the importance of attribution. Many things that appeared in the media about the Talwars were attributed to unnamed sources and were totally absurd. There was a story aired on a news channel about how the Talwars had booked 11 rooms in a hotel on the night of murder and were not at home. It was later denied by the CBI.”

Mr. Sen hopes that his book, which tries to present the real picture of what happened and offer hard evidence available, would help the readers make an informed opinion about the murder.

“The book also bewares the readers that it can happen to them as well. The Talwars are not special. It can happen to anyone,” said Mr. Sen.