Two days ago I got my hands on Aarushi — a book authored by journalist Avirook Sen about the double murders that took place in a middle-class neighbourhood in Noida in May 2008. Perhaps one of the best pieces of crime writing to have come out of India in a long time, according to some, Sen’s book is very well written and I am happy to report that I was able to finish it in one very long sitting.

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When the special CBI court in Ghaziabad delivered its verdict in the case in November 2013 convicting Rajesh and Nupur Talwar for the murder of their daughter Aarushi and their servant Hemraj, the judgment sharply divided the nation. There were those who recognised it as the perfect example of travesty of justice in recent times and there were those who thought that despite all the blunders justice had finally been delivered in the matter. When it comes to the Aarushi case, you either believe the parents or you don’t. From the very start we know who Sen is siding with. Perhaps in the light of what has transpired in the last seven years with Nupur and Rajesh, it is impossible to honestly talk about the Aarushi murder case without taking sides.

In his book, Avirook Sen pits the innocence of the Talwars against the zealously obsessive AGL Kaul, the CBI investigating officer, who had taken it upon himself to get the couple convicted. In Sen’s story Talwars are the victims and Kaul is the villain. According to Sen, AGL Kaul, who died in October last year, was not an officer with a high level of integrity and had the reputation of a ‘fixer’ within the organisation. It was Kaul who, as the head of the second CBI team to investigate the case, resurrected the UP Police’s sexually charged theory that the Talwars were the guilty party.

According to Sen, Kaul tried extremely manipulative methods to get witnesses to either deny or modify their earlier stated positions in the matter. When that failed, he tried plain forgery and was successful in more than one instance in confusing the court. Sen contends that the prosecution’s theory that Rajesh Talwar found Hemraj and Aarushi in Aarushi’s bedroom was absolutely wrong and was based on evidence that was simply not there. The court, which was in a rush to settle the matter, did not pay attention and accepted the prosecution’s point.

Though Sen makes a successful case for the innocence of the Talwars, he does not directly answer the question: who killed Aarushi and Hemraj? Importantly why were they killed?

According to the first CBI team that investigated the case, three of Hemraj’s friends, two of them worked with the friends of Talwars, while the third was Rajesh’s assistant in the clinic, were the likely suspects. All the three had watertight alibis but subjected to narcoanalysis all three confessed to being at the scene of the crime. However, the CBI could not crack the case.

Sen doesn’t say as much but it is highly unlikely that we will ever know who really committed those gruesome crimes. It is quite probable that in their appeal in the high court the Talwars will get a decent hearing and maybe things will work out for them and they will be acquitted. But we will never ever know who killed Aarushi and Hemraj.