DNA Edit: Justice Delayed, Not Denied

The Talwars had the resources to employ some of the best lawyers to prove their innocence in court. Spare a thought for those poor people who are languishing in prison due to an error-riddled criminal justice system. After four years of rotting in jail for a crime they didn’t commit, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar will finally walk to their freedom.

The Ghaziabad trial court verdict, which was widely viewed as a travesty of justice, was overturned by the Allahabad High Court that found no merit in the ‘incontrovertible’ evidence furnished by the CBI. The investigations, carried out in a cavalier manner (first by the UP police, and then the CBI), and a trial by the media had almost sealed the fate of the parents who had to bear the trauma of losing their only child. Aarushi Talwar was just shy of turning 14 when she was found in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death, her throat sliced by a knife, in 2008, in her room in Noida. What followed would have qualified for a grand farce had it not been a macabre murder feeding into a prime-time frenzy, where character assassinations and salacious details were bandied about.

The CBI’s conduct – swinging between two extremes with the change in guard – was baffling. At one point, it was not so much about finding Aarushi’s killers but carrying out a witch-hunt to pin the blame on her parents. No wonder, the premier agency’s ‘watertight’ case failed to stand up to judicial scrutiny. Aarushi’s killers are still out in the open, and that’s truly disturbing.