New Delhi, Oct 05: Drawing flak for failing to
file a charge sheet in the Noida double murder case within the
stipulated time, the CBI has formed a three-member core team
to re-examine the case.
Sources in the investigating agency said the team
would re-examine the case from the beginning and has been
mandated to question people accused in the murder of Aarushi
Talwar and her domestic help Hemraj and verify all evidence.
"Efforts are being made to speed up the case," a CBI
spokesman said without elaborating.
The agency, which took over the probe on May 31 into
the double murder, has been maintaining investigations were
not complete despite its former director Vijay Shanker
claiming that the agency had nearly cracked the case.
Following the murder of 14-year-old Aarushi and Hemraj
on the intervening night of May 15 and 16, Aarushi's dentist
father Rajesh Talwar was arrested by Noida Police on May 23.
However, after the case was taken over by the CBI, the agency
gave a clean chit to him on July 11.
The sources said the three-member team would piece all
the evidences together and ascertain whether some gaps were
left earlier while probing the blind murder case.
The failure of the CBI to file the charge sheet led to
the release of Raj Kumar, a domestic help of a family friend
of Talwar, Talwar's compounder Krishna and another domestic
help Vijay Mandal.
The weapon of offence and the mobile phones of the
deceased are to be recovered and further linkages probed. A
Letters Rogatory is being sent to Nepal, seeking assistance in
locating some witnesses and mobile phones of the deceased.
The CBI has been maintaining that the weapon used in
the double murder case was a heavy and sharp-edged one which
could be a 'khukri' (Nepalese dagger).
The three-member team would also be cooperating with the
Nepalese authorities, if necessary, to find the missing links
and telephone numbers from where calls were made on the phones
of Hemraj, Krishna and Raj Kumar.
Raj Kumar, according to his counsel Dinesh Yadav, has
already left for Nepal with a promise that he would make
himself available for investigations as and when required.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, October 05, 2008, 00:00