The CBI has filed the final closure report on a double murder that came to light on May 16, 2008, in Noida. This case encapsulates everything that?s wrong with the Indian criminal justice system, everything that makes the ordinary citizen hope and pray that she never steps into the ambit of this system. As soon as the body of Arushi Talwar?aged 14?was discovered, the local police declared that the family?s domestic help Hemraj was the prime suspect. It even announced a reward for finding him and despatched a party to scout him out in Nepal. Except, the poor fellow was discovered murdered the very next day, on the terrace of the Talwar apartment. Meanwhile, the crime scene was allowed to be overridden by media and curiosity-seekers in general. Instead of hauling up their act, the police continued to cast ham-handed aspersions?at family members, friends and servants. UP police officials called Arushi and her father ?characterless?, and arrested the latter on the theory that he had killed her after finding her in an ?objectionable? position with Hemraj. This became the calling card for scurrilous reporting, where MMS sex clips purportedly (but not actually) featuring Arushi were played out on TV, as were dramatic re-enactments of the murders. Then the country?s premier investigating agency stepped in. But the bumbling continued. Arushi?s parents were subjected to lie-detector tests. When they were exonerated, their compounder Krishna was arrested, with the then CBI director confidently proclaiming a narcoanalysis confession. More bungling kept coming to light, including adulteration of key forensic evidence. But in the absence of convincing evidence to date, the CBI is now seeking to close the case, with no apologies to anyone who has gotten salaciously finger-pointed over the years.
This has been a high-profile case, involving middle-class victims and drawing cross-class attention. Neither personnel nor technology or other resources have been in short supply. When even the Prime Minister decries that India has the largest number of pending cases in the world, the only possible consolation is that there is virtue in proceeding carefully in matters of justice. Unfortunately, as the Arushi case exemplifies, as it looks like closing without any conviction but with many an accusation in abeyance and many a reputation besmirched for ever, the delays in our criminal justice system are no sign of conscientious detective work. Slovenly, malicious, insensitive and suchlike are adjectives that come to mind instead.