Book Review - The Killing of Aarushi and The Murder of Justice by Rajesh Talwar

The very gruesome and mysterious murder of teenager Aarushi Talwar and her house help Hemraj is not new to the whole India and is even widely known all over the world because of vast media coverage. After a number of courtroom sessions, various hypothetical stories, long debates, candle marches, media highlights of all forms, the judiciary system held parents of the teenage victim responsible of her murder and sentenced them to life time imprisonment.

I must mention that I have zero knowledge on the procedures of any legal charges, but still, the fact that two people are a sentenced to 'rigours imprisonment for life' just on the basis of fictitious facts derived on the basis of different theories is still indigestible to me. Of course there are reasons and some conclusion drawn on the basis of various evidences (many of which were not even collected from the crime scene or were lost due to delay in collection), medical reports (which were again questionable and the judge himself agrees that they cannot be relied upon as the doctor 'lacks expertise and his evidence cannot be accepted'), statements recorded by various witnesses etc. .


The clear picture is yet to surface and I doubt it would ever float over.

The book gives a very minute and interesting examination on the verdict given by "the Court of Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge, Anti-Corruption, C.B.I., Ghaziabad" led by CBI judge Shyam Lal. Divided in four parts, the author has tried his very best to probe all possible sides of the case.

There are 4 parts in the book:
Part one - Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar murdered Aarushi and Hemraj
Part two - The servant's associated committed the two murders
Part three - Someone else killed Aarushi and Hemraj
Part four - The murder of Justice

The imaginary sarcastic conversation with regard to lawyers statement derived from his own marriage when he tries to prove that the old servant had physical relations with the teenage girl was hilarious. I cannot stop smiling with surprise every-time the concept comes to my mind...

Even when as a reader, I knew all details and findings, specially after the movie, it was interesting to get a through peek at all plausible angles. I even had a look at the 210 page verdict out of curiosity. Almost all of it except the details of evidence, witnesses etc is discussed in the book.