He is said to have told investigators that on the fateful night, he along with Raj Kumar, the help of the Durranis (close friends of the Talwars) and one Shambhu, went to Hemraj's room for a drink. Krishna alleges that Raj Kumar and Shambhu were in an inebriated state and had entered Aarushi's bedroom and tried to "sexually assault" her. When she resisted, they hit her on the head, slit her throat apparently with a khukri and then tried to escape. (The said 'khukri', a Gurkha dagger, has also been one of the angles the CBI is probing.) Later, Hemraj followed them to the terrace, where he was killed in a bid to eliminate any witnesses. Krishna claims he did not participate in the crime. Then why wasn't he eliminated too? Also, who is Shambhu? At the time of going to press, the CBI is yet to identify him.
While this is one among the many leads with the CBI, it doesn't have any circumstantial evidence to back it before a court of law. Much of the blame for this lies with the Noida police, for its sloppy work in the initial investigations. In fact, such is the frustration within the CBI that special director M.L. Sharma admitted to journalists that much of the evidence may have been destroyed before the investigating agency was handed over the case on June 3. As Sharma puts it, "Every time the CBI team visits the crime scene, some new evidence comes up. Sometimes it's a liquor bottle, sometimes a blood-soaked pillow. The fact is that the crime scene was not inspected properly (by the Noida police)."
There were also glaring holes in the procedures followed by the Noida police. The postmortem conducted by a Noida doctor, Dr Sunil Dohere, leaves several unanswered questions. While examining Aarushi's body, Dohere noticed a "white discharge" in the vaginal area which he referred to in his report. His superior, Dr S.C. Singhal, had told Outlook (Jun 3, Novocaine Files) that a vagina swab test had showed up negative. "That usually means there was no sexual activity," he had said then.
But there is no reference to the swab test in the postmortem report despite it being mandatory that every test conducted be recorded. "The mention of the swab test seems to be an afterthought," a senior CBI official told Outlook. Not just that, there is no sample of the white discharge. If it had been preserved, then a dna test could have conclusively proved whether Aarushi was sexually assaulted, and if so by who.
Dr Sudhir Gupta, associate professor of forensic medicine at AIIMS and an expert in his field told Outlook that going by the postmortem report, Aarushi was still alive after the first deadly blow to her temple. "It could have taken 10-30 minutes for the girl to die after which her throat was slit. Her assailants could have tried to assault her during that period when she was unconscious, but in the absence of a proper test we will never know. However, according to the facts available and the nature of injuries, this killing is indicative of what we call a 'lust or passion crime'," Dr Gupta says.
So far the case has proved to be a tough nut to crack for the CBI. An intrusive media floating wild theories at will has not helped. One TV channel even tried to hack into Aarushi's e-mail hoping to get sensational leads. There seem to be no end to the speculation. Each day throws up a new theory, only to be dismissed the following morning. For the CBI a move-on in the case is only likely after it establishes motive, recovers the murder weapon. Till such time, it's the tried-and-tested "breakthrough is expected in the next 48 hours" line.
