Lucknow, Sep 5 (IANS): Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) official Arun Kumar, deputed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has been sent back to his state cadre Uttar Pradesh following his poor handling of the sensational Arushi murder case.

The decision followed the startling revelation about surreptitious replacement of Arushi Talwar's vaginal swab that was taken during the course of the post-mortem, a senior police official told IANS here.

CBI director Ashwini Kumar, who was initially all praise about Arun Kumar, posted as a deputy inspector general in the agency and widely known for his uprightness, found the lapse in the high profile case extremely embarrassing.

Arushi was found murdered in her Noida home May 15, 2008. Their domestic help Hemraj, initially suspected of the crime, was later found dead on the roof-top.

A major controversy was sparked off by the statement of then Meerut zone Inspector General Gurdarshan Singh, who pointedly accused Arushi's dentist father Rajesh of the murders, alleging he had killed the two after finding them in an "objectionable" position.

Talwar's arrest evoked much hue and cry, following which the case was transferred to CBI with Arun Kumar in command.

Noida government district hospital physician S.H. Dohre had taken the swab sample, and handed it to the CBI, which sent it to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad December 2008. However, the centre found the sample was not of Arushi.

"I told the CBI officials that I had made a slide of the swab, which needed to be sent for DNA test that could also indicate whether she had a sexual intercourse just before the murder, as was being made out by police," Dohre told IANS over telephone.

While Kumar gave a clean chit to the Talwars and accused three servants, known for their proximity to Hemraj, he allegedly took no action about the replacement of Arushi's vaginal swab sample, neither finding out who was behind destroying vital evidence nor registering a case for destruction of evidence.