Sources say the CBI is now probing whether the MMS was used to mislead the probe and bolster the Noida Police story
LUCKNOW: The sexually explicit MMS said to be of deceased Aarushi Talwar aired on a news channel on May 23 has sparked off a big controversy and given a new dimension to the CBI investigation into the case. Besides, the murky episode could also lead to the government taking some harsh steps to ensure that news channels behave more responsibly.
Sources say the CBI is now probing whether the MMS was used to mislead the probe and bolster the Noida Police story that Aarushi’s father Dr Rajesh Talwar murdered his young daughter because of her allegedly “loose character”.
The Talwar family is also planning to take legal action in this regard. The video clip, which shows a young girl undressing, has triggered a deluge of messages on the internet from people expressing shock and outrage over the “character assassination” of a deceased girl, that too a minor. The MMS was aired several times without masking the girl’s face.
Independent investigations by DNA have revealed that the MMS was indeed a fake. It was, in fact, a video clip of a teenaged girl Sonali Rathore (name changed), who was abducted on July 3 last year by a ‘Baba’ and his two accomplices from Ganjdudwara in west UP. The girl still remains untraced.
DNA is in possession of videotaped statements of the girl’s father, Nalin Kumar (name changed) and the police officer investigating the case. Both vouch for the fact that this MMS (which they are seen watching on a mobile in this tape) is actually of Sonali Rathore.
“There is no doubt that the MMS is a fake. One look at it and you can tell it’s not Aarushi. It’s really disgusting,” says Pinaki Mishra, the Talwar family’s lawyer. He told DNA that the Talwar family would take up the defamation case “once we have handled the main case” (that is the one relating to Dr Talwar’s arrest on charges of murdering his daughter and their servant Hemraj).
Says Aarushi’s mother Nupur Talwar: “I have already lost my daughter. I have no words to express my feelings. If I say something about someone’s children, how would they feel? It’s all baseless.”
Sources told DNA that a social organisation, Rajiv Gandhi Karyakram Prachar Samiti, had lodged a case in this regard at the Parliament Street police station in New Delhi, and also sent the complaint to the I&B ministry. Displaying sexually explicit scenes could fetch the miscreant/s up to two years’ imprisonment or fine or both under the IPC (section 228).
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has also taken up the matter. Nirmala Venkatesh, member, NCW told reporters: “This is very insulting. The character assassination of a minor that too after her death shows that nobody is bothered about the dignity of a dead minor. The commission will investigate the whole matter and people behind the making of this fake MMS will have to pay heavily for this act.”
g_deepak@dnaindia.net
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