Agencies

New Delhi, Jan 1: The Central Bureau of Investigation has told court that Dr Rajesh Talwar remains the prime suspect in the murder of his daughter Aarushi and their servant Hemraj, but cannot be chargesheeted because of "insufficient evidence".

In its closure report submitted to the Ghaziabad court, the agency has catalogued circumstantial evidence strongly pointing to Dr Talwar's alleged role in the double murder, as also the reason why the agency failed to connect the dots and could not have chargesheeted him.

"Talwars have not been cleared. The probe cannot go beyond them," said sources in the agency who are familiar with the contents of the report filed under Section 173 of the CrPC on Wednesday.

The decision to file the closure report was taken following legal opinion by the agency as well as an external expert.

Sources say, the CBI is prepared to further investigate Dr Talwar if directed by the court to follow the circumstantial evidence placed on record. The possibility of the dentist being probed afresh increased on Friday evening after CBI chief A P Singh had a discussion with Union law minister M Veerappa Moily.

Singh agreed to Moily's request to have a re-look at the chain of events and the circumstantial evidence in the brutal double murder, sources said.

Sources in the agency emphasised that unlike in an "unoccured case" where a closure report is filed because the incident under investigation was not found to have occurred, the report filed in the Aarushi case does not shut the possibility of renewed investigation if a new, strong evidence comes up.

Pinaki Mishra, Dr Talwar's counsel, strongly reacted to the closure report, calling it a pack of innuendos. "This is the most unfair verdict that could have been given. They (Talwars) are being pronounced guilty until proved innocent. Without having filed a chargesheet, the CBI is condemning them to live the life of a guilty. I have no doubt that the entire investigation is derailed by taking the line of UP police - just damn them without evidence," he said.

The CBI does not debunk the defence of Talwars completely, with sources acknowledging that the probe failed to establish the motive behind the murder. They also said the dummy run conducted by them to verify Talwars' claim that they could not have heard of what was happening in the next room because of noise from their AC, shows that they could have slept through the crime. It also says the narco tests run on the couple show only "minor deceptions".

But the report lists "circumstantial evidence" to say why they continue to treat Dr Rajesh Talwar as the prime suspect in the case. Sources claim the "circumstantial evidence" is so strong that Dr Talwar could have been chargesheeted had he not been a parent.

The closure report says the crime scene was "dressed up" before the police was called -- something that is not associated with a regular criminal. Secondly, it says the private parts of Arushi had been cleaned up. It is not known whether the closure report speculates about the reason.

Thirdly, the closure report speaks of an attempt to fix the post-mortem report to ensure that there is no mention of rape. It says that Dr Dinesh Talwar, Rajesh's brother, made Dr Sunil Dohre of the Noida Hospital, who was conducting the autopsy, speak with a person he introduced as Dr T D Dogra, head of the department of forensic medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The person told Dohre that no mention of rape was needed. CBI, however, found out from Dr Dogra, a renowned authority, that he never spoke with Dohre.

Fourth, Talwars did not tell the CBI about the golf club that was suspected to have been used to Aarushi and Hemraj because of the nature of injuries. - Fifth, the door of Aarushi's room had the kind of lock that is in hotel rooms -- it could have been opened from inside or with a key from outside. Nupur Talwar had the key to her room.

Sixth, there was no sign of forced entry either into her room or Talwars' house.

Seventh, CBI also focuses on the behaviour of Talwars on the morning of May 17. It has detailed the sequence of events since 6 am when their maid Bharti rang the bell. Usually, Hemraj would open the gate and let her in. On that morning, it was Nupur Talwar who appeared in the balcony and threw the key towards her, adding that Hemraj may have gone out. Nupur had looked completely calm. Within three minutes, however, both she and her spouse were loudly crying and telling Bharti "dekho Hemraj ne kya kar diya". The closure report says that Bharti found Dr Talwar sitting in Aarushi's room. Significantly, her body body was found wrapped in a sheet.

Eighth, Talwar ignored those who wanted to go to the terrace where Hemraj's body was found the following day. The terrace which always remained open was found to be locked the day after the crime. Talwars declined to identify the body.

Nineth, the cuts on the neck of the two victims could have been caused only by a professional -- someone who was trained to use scalpel. A second opinion suggested that they could have also been caused by a khukhri. In this case, the one recovered on Krishna, one of the servants who was a suspect, had no blood stain.

CBI has stressed that the three servants -- Raj Kumar, Krishna and Vijay Mandal -- had perfect alibis. There was also no evidence of telephonic conersation between them, virtually eliminating the possibility that they were part of a conspiracy.

As for its failure to get evidence strong enough to back up their suspicion, the CBI says the DNA sample was too contaminated to yield reliable evidence. Sources said, the agency tried even using the advanced DNA touch forensic methodology, but without success. Three of the four experts with Scotland Yard it contacted held that the DNA touch could not be of any use in this case. Hyderbad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology concurred.

Sources said that Noida Police's failur to secure the crime scene was another reason why the agency was left only with circumstantial evidence. Blood stain on the whisky bottle found in Talwars' house did not match the samples of either Aarushi or Hemraj.