The murder of a teenage girl in Delhi, unjustly blamed on a domestic servant, has heightened hatred and suspicion at the heart of Asia’s most class-riven society. Andrew Buncombe in The Independent:
For police in the eastern suburbs of Delhi it seemed like an open and shut case.
When the body of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar was discovered in a pool of blood, her throat cut and the family’s domestic servant nowhere to be found, detectives had only one suspect. Senior officers said they even had clues as to where the 45-year-old Nepali servant might be hiding and said that a team of officers was being dispatched to Nepal to track him down. The police saw no reason to bring in sniffer dogs, photograph the crime scene or even force open a locked door that led to a terrace despite the presence of drops of blood on the steps.
An immediate media frenzy erupted. The TV channels and newspapers were full of lurid details and unquestioningly blamed Yam Prasad Banjade, also known as Hemraj, the missing servant, for the grisly killing of the teenager. And then one day later, someone opened the terrace door and discovered Hemraj’s decomposing body lying on the floor. He too had been murdered, in the same way as Aarushi. Police were forced to reopen the murder mystery.
[Photo: The family's servant, Hemraj (below left); Aarushi's father, Rajesh Talwar (circled). Bottom left is Aarushi's mother.]
Previously in AW:
- Aarushi murder: a new day, a new theory
- Aarushi murder: 10 questions (plus one)
- Aarushi Talwar: a media circus that says something about us
- Aarushi murder: A mother’s story
- Aarushi case: How not to investigate a murder
Similar Posts:
- Aarushi murder: A mother’s story
- Authenticity and the South Asian political novel
- Aarushi murder: It wasn’t the dad
- Aarushi murder: Two funerals and a hundred blunders
- Aarushi case: How not to investigate a murder
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