The Delhi Police and Crime Branch unit has recovered the mobile phone of Aarushi Talwar who was killed last year in her Noida residence. According to police sources, the police recovered the phone a couple of days back, which has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to assist in further investigation. The mobile phone was recovered from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, Aarushi's vaginal swab sent to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics as part of the forensic investigation was not hers at all and belonged to an unidentified woman. The sensational double murder of the teenager and the family's domestic help, Hemraj, has yielded a string of surprises with investigators appearing no closer to the truth about the deaths than when the bodies were discovered some 15 months ago. Not only was the vaginal swab not Aarushi's, but CBI has known about this switch for about eight months now.
Even as the investigating agency itself remained tight-lipped over the disclosure, CDFD confirmed that this information had been conveyed to CBI late last year. "We have to file a report in Supreme Court. The matter is sub judice and we are not going to comment on the status of investigations," CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said. What is perhaps even more baffling than the shocking case of the swab switch is the complete silence on what action CBI took after coming to know about the "sabotage".
The least the agency could have done was register a case for destruction of evidence and probe the matter but instead, as sources revealed, it formed a committee to look into what an officer described as a "lapse". Based on this disclosure, CBI is also said to have sent a questionnaire to the police in Noida, doctors and autopsy experts but no senior officer seemed willing to confirm it. In fact, when questioned about the possibility of this disclosure once again pointing the needle of suspicion at Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar, a senior officer vehemently denied that there was any change in the status of the investigations.
After taking over as CBI director last year, Ashwani Kumar had described the clean chit to Talwar as a feather in the agency's cap but it failed to file a chargesheet against the three accused. The UP police and doctors who conducted the autopsy on Aarushi had ruled out sexual assault saying there was no sign of male semen. Talwar was soon arrested by the cops. The CBI took over the case two weeks later and started zeroing in on Talwar's compounder Krishna, Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal. Mandal and Kumar worked as servant with Talwars' friends.
After arresting all three, CBI made them take narco analysis tests in which they all "admitted" to having sexually assaulted Aarushi. It was then that the agency, overruling the UP police contention that no sexual assault took place, decided to send the vaginal swab for re-testing to Hyderabad in July 2008. It is well known that CBI officials desperately wanted the test to confirm sexual assault as it would have authenticated the narco findings and, in turn, strengthened their case. As things now stand, the latest disclosure, despite the eight-month delay, is going to again raise doubts over who could be in a position to influence investigations as it was unlikely to be the domestic helps.
Several loose ends in the story, as also CBI's silence over the swab swap, have led to even more unanswered questions in the twin murder case. The vaginal swab could have been substituted immediately after the autopsy by doctors on May 17, 2008. But, in that case, the identity of the people at whose behest this was done needs to be established. They could have been influenced to act in that manner by the UP cops (autopsy experts acting at the behest of cops is not uncommon even in Delhi) who were upset over the flak they received for arresting Talwar, as also over the transfer of the case to CBI. But, in that case, the UP police would have known that the agency would eventually re-test the report.
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