3 Review(s)

The Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj Banjade murder case gripped the imagination of the nation for the better part of a decade, and is likely to remain a running story for many more years. The case involved the shocking and heinous murder of a young teenage girl, Aarushi and the family servant Hemraj, and was first investigated by the state police that allowed the crime scene to be heavily contaminated and robbed of all direct evidence. The case took many twists and turns, which were widely reported in the media. Initially the Talwars, Nupur and Rajesh, dentists and parents of the young girl were suspected of the crime by the state police, but subsequently when investigation was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country's premier investigative agency, the first team investigating the matter reached the conclusion that the Talwars were innocent and it was Hemraj's associates that had committed the murders. The case took another turn when a fresh investigating team was put in charge following the appointment of a new director. This new team exonerated the servants and directed the needle of suspicion once more towards the Talwars. In the trial that followed the Talwars were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.Many questions, however, still remain. This book considers some of those unanswered questions, examines the trial court judgement and related material closely in the context of three possible scenarios, and concludes that the Talwars were probably innocent and should at any rate been given the benefit of reasonable doubt. The author of a bestselling book on the Nirbhaya case makes a compelling case as to why the Allahabad High Court redressed a flawed verdict and why Aarushi Talwar murder case remains one of the most debated, but ultimately unsolved, crimes of this century.