Same man attacked Talwar, S.P.S. Rathore

CHANDIGARH/GHAZIABAD - The man who attacked Rajesh Talwar, father of murdered teen Aarushi Talwar, outside a Ghaziabad court Tuesday has been identified as Utsav Sharma, who had earlier assaulted Haryana’s tainted former police chief S.P.S. Rathore, sources said.

Talwar was attacked with a cleaver outside the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in broad daylight, and Rathore was assaulted in an almost identical manner almost a year ago.

Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, was stabbed in the face and neck three times by Sharma as he came out of the Chandigarh court premises Feb 8 last year.

Rathore was injured in the face and neck. Immediately after the attack, the Chandigarh Police arrested the pen-knife wielding Sharma, who was posing as a freelance journalist.

He was let off on bail in the Rathore attack case a few months ago.

And on Tuesday he struck again, outside another CBI court.

He used almost the same modus operandi against Talwar Tuesday when he attacked him with a sharp edged cleaver, sources said.

Talwar, who had to be taken to Apollo Hospital, was seen bleeding profusely from the face.

The cleaver was seen on the ground as television cameras caught details of the assault and security personnel grabbed the young man who had attacked Talwar outside the special CBI court hearing the Aarushi case.

Sharma, said to be around 30 years old, belongs to Varanasi and was pursuing film production at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design (NID). The NID gold medallist is also fond of reading books on psychology.

His father, S.K. Sharma, is a professor in the mechanical engineering department of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), while his mother Indira is a psychology teacher.

Sharma had told police officers, who had interrogated him after the Rathore incident, that he was upset that Ruchika had to suffer and commit suicide because the system did not help her and her family.

Sharma was booked under Sections 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Rathore had sought an attempt to murder case against him.

On Tuesday, he was booked for attempt to murder and under the National Security Act as the attack took place inside the court premises, said Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, Raghuvir Lal.

“After interrogation, we have concluded he’s not mentally ill,” Lal told reporters.

Aarushi, 14, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in her parents’ Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida, May 16, 2008. Their domestic help Hemraj was initially suspected for the killing, but his body was found on the flat’s terrace a day later.

Rajesh Talwar was arrested soon after the murders but let off when investigators could not find evidence to nail him.

A special CBI court had held Rathore guilty of molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town in August 1990. She committed suicide three years later.