Who Killed Innocence….?

There is something exaggeratedly sinister about the brutal twin murders of an innocent 14- year- old girl, and the domestic who worked for the family ( nobody bothers about his death… are you surprised?). As things stand, the case has reached a bit of a dead end and there are any number of theories floating around. While it is true that the media has been conducting its own trial night after night and pretty much stating : the dad did it, the response of Aarushi’s parents has beenpuzzling and bizarre , to say the least.Grieving parents behave in a different manner. 
They are broken in spirit and rendered almost incoherent with grief at the loss of a loved one. An only child at that. Not these two, though. Sorry if this sounds like pop psychology gone wrong… but the conduct displayed by Mr. and Mrs. Talwar appears a bit too calculated, even cold blooded to viewers. It conveys just one thing : Catch us if you can. There is defiance and challenge built into every statement. ‘Where is the proof? What evidence do you have?” Aarushi’s mother keeps demanding aggressively, as if to suggest, “We’ve taken care of every small detail… covered each track…so there!” 
For a mother of a dead girl to project such steely determination during what must have been the most harrowing time of her life, seems a bit unnatural. I have spent enough time consoling mothers who have lost their kids to say this is perhaps the first time I have observed a mom whose sole objective seems to be to put up a feisty defence for herself and her husband.Both the Talwars have a script that reads like a law manual. Their faces are stony, their eyes, strangely devoid of any emotion. When they mention Aarushi, they could as well be discussing their neighbour’s kid.

Poor Aarushi.
God alone knows what prompted this ghastly murder. Did the young girl witness something she wasn’t meant to? Did she stumble across a dark and dirty family secret? Had she become an ‘inconvenience’ to her own parents? Who was she about to embarrass – herself or her parents? The crime has been committed by skilled, educated, clever people – that much is obvious. The devious master plan behind destroying key evidence and manipulating records can only be accomplished by people who are aware of police procedures and well up on forensic investigations.

The early attempts to blame Hemraj, the slain domestic , therefore fall flat. Similarly, the subsequent efforts to implicate three other domestics remain equally unconvincing ( good thing those tortured and humiliated young men are seeking compensation) .Let’s leave the bumbling CBI blokes out of this space for now. The Aarushi murder goes beyond the killings of an only child and the man servant. It acts as a mirror to our urban lives . Here are two busy professionals - parents who claim they slept through the murders that were taking place a few feet away from their own bedroom. They also slept through persistent phone calls the same night and didn’t know who sneaked into their home at that late hour and cut the internet connection! More, they had no idea that someone had helped himself\herself to whiskey after the murder, and left the bottle on the table.
Nor did they hear any strange activity on the terrace even though a body was being dragged there and a heavy, blood stained mattress was being flung out. No screams… no noises associated with struggle…. nothing disturbed these parents. 
The Talwars blissfully slept the sleep of the dead. Ironically, it was their daughter who had died!They heard nothing… knew nothing. But were up at 6 a.m. to throw down the house keys to the maid, call her up to Aarushi’s room and calmly show her their daughter’s neatly covered and cleaned up body! Unbelievable? Perhaps. But so smartly set up that the best sleuths in the land remain baffled… and clueless!
As of now, it’s a case of the perfect murder! Not all the top brains in the country have succeeded in getting leads that nail the culprits. The Talwars can continue to sleep in peace. One thing they have proved is that their nerves are made of steel. Young Aarushi has taken many secrets to her grave. So has Hemraj, the man who was being blamed for Aarushi’s death. Even if the culprit is eventually found, and the Talwars get off the hook, the country will continue to be stupefied by their stellar performances on television night after night. No tears, no sorrow. Just icy arguments proclaiming their own innocence. Aarushi must be weeping …

(shobha de)