Aarushi murder: CBI gives up with closure report

The CBI on December 29, 2010, filed a closure report in the Aarushi double murder case before a Ghaziabad court on the grounds there was no available evidence at the crime scene to pursue the probe, meeting a dead-end in the case that shook the country over two years back.

After a detailed two-and-a-half year probe marked by botched up investigations, the CBI said it found it impossible to reach any plausible conclusion because of lack of concrete forensic evidence at the crime scene to nail the culprits and decided to close the case.

The designated court will fix the date for taking cognizance of the closure report filed by the CBI. If accepted, the three suspects - Raj Kumar, Vijay Mandal and Krishna - will be set free. They are out on bail now.

The Talwar family have decided to file an appeal against the closure report. The CBI move sparked outrage among Aarushi's parents - a dentist couple - and her family. Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar said he is completely devastated and wondered what prompted CBI to close the case.

Fourteen-year-old Aarushi Talwar was murdered in the intervening night of May 15-16 in 2008 along with their domestic help Hemraj, whose body lay on the terrace. Forensic experts involved in the case said that crucial evidence were destroyed allegedly by probe agency and accused CBI of cover up.

The forensic expert also raised doubts over the investigations handled first by Uttar Pradesh police before handing it over to CBI.

The Uttar Pradesh Police which started investigations in the murder case, suspected domestic help Hemraj for the killing and dispatched a team to Nepal to nab him. But these claims fell flat as an acquaintance of Talwars found a trail of blood to terrace next day where Hemraj's body was found lying in a dried blood.

The shoddy probe by the police evoked sharp media frenzy and triggered demands of CBI probe as state police levelled allegations of honour killing against the father and arrested him for the murder of his daughter Aarushi and domestic Hemraj. The Centre which was reluctant to hand over probe to the CBI gave its nod after a fortnight and investigations started under Joint Director Arun Kumar on June 1, 2008.

The CBI arrested domestic help of Talwar's compounder Krishna, domestic help of their neighbour Mandal and Rajkumar, the domestic help of Durranis - friends of Talwars. All the five suspects including the parents of Aarushi were subjected to detailed questioning, narco-analysis, brain mapping and lie detector test but the agency could not find any lead which could help them in concluding the case.

On July 11, 2008, the CBI claimed that there was not even a shred of evidence to suggest that the murder was committed by the parents and subsequently, the father was released on bail after remaining in jail for 57 days.

After completing investigation, the CBI has filed a final report for closure of case on ground of insufficient evidence in the competent court, a CBI spokesman said.