Lalit Kumar & Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui/TNN
Noida/Lucknow, May 19: In a shocking finding, the postmortem on Arushi's body has revealed that the 14-year-old Noida schoolgirl had died 18 to 24 hours before her death was reported on Friday morning.
According to the postmortem report, Arushi, daughter of a dentist couple, died around noon on Thursday, or up to 6 hours earlier. This means that Arushi was dead long before her parents went to sleep on Thursday night. The body lay in the house much of the day on Thursday, and was reported only at 6.30 the next morning.
This finding and the recovery of the body of Hemraj, the domestic help, have turned the case topsy-turvy. Matters have been rendered even more complex by other revelations like Arushi's cellphone ID showing its location in Mayur Vihar at 6am on Friday — around the same time that her body was apparently discovered — and the last call from the cellphone to a friend of Arushi being made at 9pm on Thursday. The cellphone has not been found since the murder has come to light and the missing instrument clearly establishes that it is with someone whose name has not yet figured in the probe, believe investigators.
A police force that had so prematurely declared that Hemraj was the killer of Arushi, and actually put out a reward of Rs 20,000 for him, is now not available to provide any information on the actual events.
For instance, on Sunday evening, the Noida police chief called reporters for a press conference at 5pm. But only a deputy superintendent of police, Akhilesh Kumar, turned up, around 6pm. And in his 20-minute interaction, he was not able to answer any of the unanswered questions in the intriguing case.
Even when asked about what possible motive anyone could have to kill Arushi, Kumar said: "Some things are not meant to be revealed to everyone. But we will solve the case very soon." Reminded that police had earlier said they would take only a few hours to bust the case, he did not comment.
It is also learned that the wound on Arushi's neck was a full 20cm long, and was carried out with considerable precision. The trachea, the jugular veins and the carotid artery, the last being able to cause loss of speech and cognition even if she was to survive, were all cut. "This kind of single injury, of this length would have to be inflicted very studiedly and deliberately and may indicate that surgical equipment rather than a kitchen knife was used to inflict them," said a doctor.
"The modus operandi of killing Arushi and Hemraj was exactly the same," said sources. Police are not ruling out the hand of experts or paramedical personnel in the murders. A compounder from the dentist couple's clinic is among seven people taken into custody for questioning. A friend of the compounder and five other domestic helps have also been taken into custody.
Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, a team of the state police's special task force questioned the parents of Arushi, at their Sector 25 residence, for several hours. But, they did not reveal anything new about the Noida twin murder that came up during the questioning.
The investigators that visited the Talwar residence are yet to find an explanation for Arushi's room being locked from outside.
Neither was any police officer concerned with the case available for any information, all Sunday. The only thing available in plenty in the sensational murder case was unanswered questions.
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