Bulletin: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar: India: "Yes, Nupur Talwar Did Cry." An extremely important column by Sonia Singh, Editorial Director of NDTV; " It was one of the most difficult interviews I have ever done because of the pain I felt my subject was in. The interview ended, she got up, went to a corner of the studio, and broke down. She cried and cried. My director, the camera crews were on standby. We could have recorded her breakdown. We didn't. It seemed intrusive and unnecessary." (Must, Must Read. HL)

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: What follows is an extraordinary column. NDTV editorial director Sonia Singh clears up a misconception that has haunted Rajesh  and Nupur Talwar: That during an interview - the morning after her husband Rajesh Talwar had been arrested by the Noida police, barely a week after Aarushi had been killed - Nupur Talwar did not shed any tears. This misconception - known in the courts as "demeanour"   so-called  'soft' evidence - as played to the hilt by the media, and, no doubt, played a significant role in the criminal charges ultimately laid against them  in the absence of any tangible  evidence, forensic or otherwise. Such a phenomena is not unique to India. In Ontario, Guy Paul Morin,  the subject of one of the most notorious wrongful convictions in Canadian history,  became the object of a criminal investigation into the disappearance of his young neighbour Christine Jessop, because the police decided from interviews that he was   a ‘weird-type guy’ and a clarinet player. Very suspicious indeed.  The investigators also zeroed in on Morin - who was exonerated by DNA evidence - because he appeared to them  to be emotionally detached from the fate of his neighbour. Now we know from Sonia Singh that Nupur Talwar expressed the anguish expected of any mother in horrific circumstances involving the violent murder of  her daughter, the murder of a servant, and the tragedy which had struck her family. It was all there. But the camera had been turned off in an act of journalistic decency, to allow her a private moment of heartbreak. All the more reason for the Indian government  to redeem this ugly blot on India's criminal justice system, free the Talwars without waiting years for an appeal, exonerate them,  find the real killer or killers,  and bring them to justice."

Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

"(The Newsroom, a weekly column by Sonia Singh, NDTV's Editorial Director, focuses on the big news stories, how we covered them and why):  "I want to shout this from the rooftops. Nupur Talwar cried; in fact, she cried copiously! Her mistake - she did it off camera; my mistake - I didn't keep the cameras rolling to record what I felt was a private moment of heartbreak. Let me rewind to seven years ago. Nupur, currently in an Uttar Pradesh Jail, convicted of the murder of her daughter Aarushi, gave me an interview on NDTV in May, the morning after her husband Rajesh Talwar had been arrested by the Noida police, barely a week after Aarushi had been killed. At the time, the coverage of the mysterious murders, a young girl found dead in her bedroom, the cook found two days later dead on the terrace, had gripped Indian television in a way no other crime had. Wild rumours, theories, plants by the police were discussed every night as fact. These ranged from so-called wife swapping parties thrown by the dentist couple to 14-year-old Aarushi having an affair with the middle-aged cook (yes, honour killing was the reason given by one senior police officer). Not one of these theories was backed by any evidence at all. Yet this inability to distinguish fact from fiction went on to become a hallmark of the investigations that followed.........We began the interview, the cameras came on. At this time, Nupur just seemed completely numb, in her initial answers she seemed almost zombie-like, talking about a life which didn't exist now. She flared up briefly, when I asked her about the allegations against Rajesh and their family. "Sonia, I was there with Aarushi" she told me, "I was the one who got her home. We were together. We ate dinner as a family. We talked as a family, we watched television as a family and we went to sleep. I mean, just like any other family, like any other household. We have work to do next day; there is school the next day. And you just go off to sleep and that's the end of the day..... I have been in that house. I was living in that house. I was sleeping next to Rajesh that night and I mean is such a thing possible? Do you think any mother could sit through the house or sit there and sleep through that night and you know, just not be aware of such a thing. If my husband was to do it, I mean it's beyond anyone's imagination, I mean there are so many people out there, mothers out there, can you ever think, can any mother think its possible?" What came through to me while I was interviewing her was unimaginable grief and trauma. It was one of the most difficult interviews I have ever done because of the pain I felt my subject was in. The interview ended, she got up, went to a corner of the studio, and broke down. She cried and cried. My director, the camera crews were on standby. We could have recorded her breakdown. We didn't. It seemed intrusive and unnecessary.........As soon as the interview aired, reactions poured in. From people whose opinion I valued and trusted, the verdict was one of the great dignity and strength with which Nupur had faced the situation. Yet, I had complete strangers coming up to me with views like "What kind of mother doesn't cry, kuch unnatural tha." At this time, there was no question of Nupur being a suspect in Aarushi's murder, the focus was on Rajesh Talwar. The case went on to become stranger and stranger. It was handed over to the CBI who held a press conference to declare three domestic helps guilty but couldn't support this in court. The team changed, suddenly the theory changed. I received a call again from the Talwars. "Can we meet you?" I went to their dental clinic in Hauz Khas, where there was again a full waiting room of patients who had stayed loyal to their dentist. "Why is the CBI closing the investigation?" Rajesh Talwar asked me. "The director is avoiding our calls. I have heard the case will be closed. This is injustice to our daughter. Should I hire a private investigator? Should I send the fingerprint on the whisky bottle abroad for analysis? Why isn't the media taking this up. We are meeting top lawyers to make sure the CBI doesn't brush this under the carpet." The questions came thick and fast from a father who wanted answers, who wanted justice. Little did anyone suspect at that time that a court would some years later go on to convict both parents in the murder, with not one piece of concrete evidence. Why I ask myself now, why if they were guilty, would they want the CBI to continue their investigations, why didn't they just let it go into the CBI archives as another unsolved mystery?.........I asked Konkana how difficult it was to play Nupur in the movie. "I watched your interview with Nupur many times," Konkana told me. "Meghna and I were just discussing that she is not how women are depicted. This is not how we see women in the media. Whether it is films or you know television stories and things like that. Firstly, we rarely really see an older woman, and such complex emotions in a realistic way portrayed. You know, so she's not conforming to various conventions, which is then difficult for people to accept." Was that it, I wondered, Nupur Talwar didn't conform to a Bollywood image of a grieving mother so she was judged. Judged at all stages, even in the final court decision. That's why I had to put the record straight in this column. Yes, Nupur did cry. Now, can we change our verdict of her?"
http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/newsroom-actually-nupur-talwar-cried-copiously-1225628