‘The perfect murder’?

Two dead in a locked house and no obvious suspect...

Both victims’ throats were slit

Married couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were successful dentists at a clinic in Noida, a city near Dehli in India.

Their daughter Aarushi, 13, attended a prestigious public school, while they lived in a posh apartment in an affluent neighbourhood.

Hemraj Banjade, 45, was

their live-in domestic help, and he ran the household with the help of a maid. But when the maid arrived for work at 6am on 16 May 2008, no-one answered.

She rang the doorbell three times. Finally, instead of Hemraj answering as usual, Nupur opened it.

Nupur asked the maid if she knew where Hemraj was – but she had no idea.

Two doors and a gate separated the apartment from the outside, where the maid waited to be let in. Both of the doors were apparently locked. Then Rajesh woke up and wandered into the living room, where he was surprised to find a near-empty bottle of whisky on the dining table. Alarmed, his thoughts turned to his daughter. And when the Talwars opened the door to her bedroom – which was usually locked – they saw Aarushi on the bed.

Their daughter was dead. Rajesh screamed in horror, while his wife Nupur was shocked into silence.

Both parents sobbed as they showed the maid their harrowing discovery. Aarushi’s body was covered with a blanket, her face hidden with her schoolbag. By the time the police arrived, the house was in chaos. There were 15 family members and neighbours in the living room, more in the Talwars’ bedroom. The crime scene had been trampled over.

Blame instantly fell on the live-in help Hemraj.

It was believed he’d drunk the whisky, tried to sexually assault Aarushi, and killed her when she resisted. After a postmortem, Aarushi’s body was cremated later that same day. A desperate search for Hemraj ensued. But the next day, as Nupur and Rajesh headed to the Ganges River to scatter their daughter’s ashes, visitors at their home noticed blood stains on the door to an outside terrace. It was locked from the inside, and the key was missing.

After breaking the lock, the group made a terrible discovery.

It was the body of Hemraj the housekeeper.

He lay in a pool of blood on the terrace, his corpse already decomposing.

According to postmortem reports, it appeared both Aarushi and Hemraj had died between 12am and 1am on the same night.

Both had been attacked with a heavy, blunt weapon, then, their throats had been slit.

Sensational media coverage followed, and suspicion turned to Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.

Their bedroom was next to their daughter’s – yet they claimed that they hadn’t heard a thing.

The investigating detectives developed several theories.

Their main one was that Rajesh had found his daughter Aarushi and Hemraj in a compromising position – and had murdered them both. A so-called ‘honour’ killing. Rajesh and Nupur both denied killing their daughter and Hemraj.

The case was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which exonerated both parents.

The CBI’s suspicion turned, instead, to two former servants and an assistant of the Talwars.

The three men were questioned, investigated.

Salacious allegations bounced around… That the three men had attempted to sexually assault Aarushi, and

killed Hemraj for witnessing it.

But a forensic report found all physical evidence from the crime scene, including a vaginal swab from Aarushi, had been tampered with.

The pathologist also found evidence that Aarushi’s body, including her private parts, had been ‘cleaned’ after her death.

Perhaps to hide evidence of a sexual assault.

But by whom..?

An aggressor removing evidence of his sexual crimes? Or her parents protecting her dignity – or perhaps hiding their shame?

By December 2010, there wasn’t any solid evidence linking the two former servants and the assistant to the killings.

The CBI once again concluded it had to be an inside job.

With suspicion back on the parents, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar stood trial at a special CBI court in May 2013.

The CBI’s case was simple. Only four people had been inside the locked house on that fateful night.

Thirteen-year-old Aarushi, her parents and Hemraj.

The CBI argued that, despite the lack of forensic evidence, the surviving pair must be the killers.

It said the Talwars killed their daughter in a rage when they found her in bed with Hemraj.

It suggested that the parents wrapped Hemraj’s body in a bed sheet and dragged it up to the terrace.

Giving evidence for the prosecution, two doctors theorised that the victims had been hit over the head with one of Rajesh’s golf clubs.

Their throats had been slit with surgical precision, using a scalpel – the tool and skills which a dentist would have.

Yet the couple maintained that they’d been asleep during the two killings.

Their defence lawyer rubbished the golf-club and scalpel claims, saying the wild theories emerged 18 months after the crimes.

And that doctors had come to this hypothesis using only crime-scene photos, which the defence claimed weren’t conclusive.

In the end, a judge convicted Rajesh and Nupur Talwar of murder, destruction of evidence, misleading the police and filing a wrong first-information report.

The couple were sentenced to life imprisonment.

But both the Talwars protested their innocence – and in January 2017, they challenged the verdict in the Allahabad High Court.

Their defence team pointed to glaring holes in the case.

They argued that the CBI had failed to prove the house had been locked from the inside that night – a point on which the prosecution’s case hinged.

They said it was entirely possible outsiders could’ve got in, committed the murders.

Plus the police had failed to cordon off the crime scene immediately, potentially destroying key evidence.

Also, as the CBI itself admitted, the case for murder against the Talwars was entirely circumstantial.

The mystery brought unprecedented media scrutiny – a dead girl and servant inside a locked house, their bodies behind several more locked doors for which only the parents apparently had keys.

Some called the crime the perfect murder.

But had the parents really killed their daughter and servant in order to protect their honour?

Or were they merely scapegoats, blamed to cover up a botched investigation?

It was now for judges at the highest court in the state to decide...