CBI tags Arushi murder as unsolved, seeks to close case

NEW DELHI - The CBI Wednesday sought to close Arushi Talwar’s murder as an unsolved case, citing lack of evidence over two years since the 14-year-old was found killed in her parents’ flat in suburban Noida, official said.

“The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has filed a closure report in the Ghaziabad court, citing lack of evidence in the murder,” a CBI officer told IANS.

The CBI in September reconstituted its Special Investigation Team (SIT) last year following reports that the vaginal swabs of the teenaged victim may have been substituted.

During the same period, the Delhi Police Crime Branch recovered Aarushi’s black Nokia N72 mobile phone, a crucial piece of evidence in the case, from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr town.

Aarushi, the daughter of dentist parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, was found murdered mysteriously in their Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida May 16, 2008. The family’s domestic help, Hemraj, whom Noida police initially suspected for the murder, was also found killed on their flat’s terrace a day later.

Rajesh Talwar was arrested and kept behind bars for 50 days in connection with the killings, but was later let off because of lack of evidence against him.

After Rajesh Talwar was let off, the CBI arrested his medical assistant Krishna and two other domestic helps in the neighbourhood Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal.

All of them were freed after a period of detention while the CBI continued to hunt for material evidence in the case that caused sensation in Delhi and became the talking point across the country.

The investigating agency in January this year sought permission of a Ghaziabad court to conduct narco-analysis tests on Aarushi’s parents. They underwent the tests in an Ahmedabad forensic laboratory in February.