GIST: In the latest twist in
a high-profile murder trial in India, prosecutors say a Delhi couple
accused of killing their daughter and cook should not be given access to
test results that may have shown the involvement of three other men.
Nor, prosecutors argued, should they be allowed to call witnesses in
their defence. The dozen or so
witnesses the defence sought to call were “irrelevant,” R.K. Saini told a
district court Thursday. Any attempt to call other witnesses was a
delaying tactic and should also be rejected, he said, and the request
for scientific records was a waste of the court’s time. India’s central
investigative agency, the CBI, accuses Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, both
dentists, of coming across their only child, 13-year-old Aarushi and
45-year-old live-in male cook, Hemraj Banjade, in her bedroom and
killing them in a fit of rage five years ago. The lead investigator
testified that Rajesh hit Hemraj on the head with a golf club and
accidentally killed his daughter. Nupur and he then dragged Hemraj’s
body to the roof terrace and slit his throat with a “surgical”
instrument, A.G.L. Kaul said. The couple came back downstairs, slit
their daughter’s throat, and wiped out all evidence......... Prosecutors took one year to make their case, calling 39 witnesses. A doctor who conducted
the post-mortem on Hemraj told court that the dead man’s erect penis
was evidence that sexual activity was either about to take place or was
taking place.
This knowledge, said the doctor, did not come from any scientific authority, but was based on his experience as a married man. The golf club, as the
prosecution admitted, has no blood or body fluid linking it to the
murder. But one club was said to have less dirt on it than others in the
bag;
the CBI alleges that is sign of a “cleanup.” The “surgical instrument” that investigators had previously identified as a dental scalpel was not presented. The absence of Hemraj’s blood in Aarushi’s room was also a sign of a cleanup by the Talwars, prosecutors alleged.......... The testimony of 14 of those dropped is crucial for defence. Among them:
A doctor who examined Aarushi’s vaginal swab and told police there was no sign of semen;
A constable who
stated in police records she allowed cleaners to clean the crime scene
hours after Aarushi’s body was discovered;
A high-ranking police
official, Arun Kumar, who, during his stint at the CBI, headed a team
that conducted extensive investigations and exonerated Rajesh in July
2008. His team found no evidence that Hemraj had been killed in the
house. Hemraj’s blood was not in Aarushi’s room or on the Talwars’
clothes. Kumar’s team emerged
with an alternative narrative of a sexual assault gone wrong and pointed
the finger at the Talwars’ dental clinic assistant Krishna Thadarai,
and two other domestic workers from the neighbourhood. Kumar was taken off
the case. A second CBI team did not investigate the three alternative
suspects further; instead, it accused the Talwars of the murders. The Talwars are seeking reports of the tests on the dental clinic assistant and the other two men. They are also asking
that evidence collected by police, including a blood-stained palm print
on a stucco wall, blood on an alcohol bottle and a blood-stained pillow
cover and blood-stained knife seized from Krishna’s house be examined by
a DNA expert in England.
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/06/14/aarushi_talwar_murder_indian_prosecutors_say_defence_shouldnt_use_forensics_or_witnesses.html
See earlier Toronto Star story by Shree Paradkar on this troubling Indian case which appeared on the Charles Smith Blog with the heading:
"Aarushi Talwar case:
India; A fascinating brilliantly written look at one of India’s most
notorious murder trials - and the brutal harm caused to the innocent by
outdated forensic and investigative techniques: Shree Paradkar tells
her cousins's story. Toronto Star. Must Read."
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/01/aarushi-talwar-fascinating-brilliantly.html
