Talwar attacker be sent to mental hospital, plead his parents

GHAZIABAD - The court trying Utsav Sharma, who attacked murdered teenager Aarushi’s father Rajesh Talwar outside a court here earlier this week, Friday sought a report from the jail authorities after the youth’s parents requested that he be sent for mental treatment, his lawyer said.

“We have asked the court to send him (Utsav) either to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences in New Delhi or Institute of Mental Health at Agra for a treatment. The delay would further worsen him. We pleaded his place is the hospital, not a jail,” said Utsav’s lawyer S.P. Chaudhary.

“After our prayer, the court has sought the opinion of jail authorities and adjourned the hearing for Jan 31, 2011,” he added.

Chaudhary submitted that timely treatment is a must for Utsav. If timely treatment is not given, he might be dangerous not only for society but for himself also, he said.

Giving details, the lawyer submitted that Utsav had been under treatment for his bipolar disorder under various psychiatrists. After 2007, he had been under the treatment of Dr. Ratna Bilwani, an eminent psychiatrist at Ahmadabad where he was pursuing his master’s degree in designing from National Institute of Design (NID).

Earlier also, he was being treated by various doctors at Varanasi where his father Prof. S.K. Sharma is the head of the department of mechanical engineering at Banaras Hindu University and mother Indira Sharma is also the head of the department of psychology in the same university.

Talking to IANS, Prof. Sharma said: “Utsav had been a brilliant student. He is a gold medallist from NID and always scored first division throughout from school to university. He had been complaining of corruption but we realized his problem in 2006 when he started complaining that his interest in studies was decreasing.”

Since 2007, he was under constant treatment but the Ghaziabad police had been too harsh on him, he added, contending he should be charged under section 324 of the Indian Penal Code (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) only because his attack on Talwar was not to kill him.

Utsav Tuesday attacked Talwar with a cleaver outside a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in this Uttar Pradesh town as hundreds of people watched stunned. He was booked for attempt to murder and under the National Security Act as the crime had occurred in the courthouse. He is currently held in jail.

He had also attacked tainted former Haryana top cop S.P.S. Rathore, convicted in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, outside a Chandigarh court last year.