Aarushi case: Talwars rubbish surgical weapon theory

In the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case, the defence lawyer for the Talwars Thursday rubbished the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) theory that the throats of the two victims had been cut with a surgical scalpel.

Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar's lawyer Satyaketu Singh said that though there were on record five statements of Dr Naresh Raj, who conducted the post-mortems on the victims, the use of surgical scalpel did not figure in the first four statements.

The surgical scalpel theory figured in his fifth statement just three days (Oct 12, 2009) before forensic expert M.S. Dahiya's statement of Oct 15, 2009. So, it was a well-planned conspiracy to plant such weapon on the accused persons since they were from the medical field.

Second, to justify its claim, the CBI investigation officer A.G.L. Kaul sought specialist opinion from dentist Chandra Bhan Singh of the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi but finding the opinion not supporting them, they did not call him for testimony despite including his name in the list of witnesses.

Dentist Amulya Chaddha contradicted the CBI claim that 0.7 mm cutting edge of the surgical scalpel cannot cut the throat's trachea while the deceased's throat was found severed from the trachea. To support his statement, Chaddha presented the surgical scalpel before the court for the first time while Dahiya denied he saw the surgical scalpel earlier and gave his statement purely based on documents.

Third, no witness in the case submitted that the sharp-edged cut injury was done by medically trained people. So, it is also a hypothesis of CBI that the medically-trained Talwars used the surgical scalpel to kill the victims.

After three hours' defence arguments from 2.00 p.m., the CBI judge adjourned the court for Nov 1 to record further arguments of the defence.

Aarushi, 14, was found murdered at her parents' Noida residence May 16, 2008. Next day, Hemraj's body was found on the house terrace.