On October 12, 2017, an Indian court acquitted dentists Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the murder case of their daughter Aarushi Talwar in 2008 due to lack of circumstantial evidence.
Subsequently, they were released from jail after 4 years of conviction. But when we looked back here what we found…. some ‘insensitive’ reporters unnecessarily sensationalize their stories.
Here, we want to mention the sensational double murder case in Noida.Police had found Noida school girl Arushi’s body in her bedroom on May 16 (2008) morning.Later,Hemraj their 45 year old domestic help also found dead. First, they suspected Hemraj for Aarushi’s murder.Even they circulated pictures of the ‘massing servant’.
But,Noida Police top brass were embarrassed when the ‘missing servant’ they had confidently accused of killing the school girl turned up murdered .Every time media savvy top officials of Noida Police came up with new theories and murder alibi.Then, they arrested another domestic help Vishnu Sharma,having worked for Talwar’s (Aarushi’s parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, both well known Dental Surgeons of Delhi) for twin murders because,according to Police,the Talwar’s had angered him by replacing him with a man called Hamrej who was murdered along with Aarushi.
Then,Noida police claimed that they had crack the murder mystery and arrested Rajesh Talwar,father of murdered school girl.The police said the motive was to prevent Aarushi from revealing Rajesh’s affair with colleague Anita Durrani,also a dentist.Rajesh was also angry with her for having an ‘affair’ with Hemraj.News channels blindly quoted Noida police.The news channels conducted media trial of the little girl,who was not there to defend herself.Noida double murder case is the biggest crime story after Nithari serial killing case of 2006 where from 2005 to the end of 2006 at least 19 children-all from poor families went missing from Nithari,a slum in Noida,near Delhi.Repeated complaints by parents of missing children to the Police didn’t help a single missing child.After the intervention of High Court, the police found skeletal remains of children buried in a drain running behind affluent businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s Noida house.Initial investigation revealed that pandher,along with his domestic help Surendra Koli,had sexually abused and killed the children.News channels have reported a jump in their viewership ever since the news of the double murder broke.People are interested to know about who killed Aarushi. From the first day, Noida police mishandled the case.Every time they arrested someone or made up a ‘story’,media specially News channels blindly follow the theory.In the Arushi murder case,the police made the mistake of not taking timely action and missed out vital clues.
Though,news channels questioned the ‘mishandling’ the case by the police,they compete each other to improve the viewer ship. For instance,on May 23,the day Aarush’s father was arrested and Police claimed it to be honour killing, the Television Rating Point of Hindi news channels jumped overnight.Noida police claimed that Rajesh killed her daughter because he had found them(Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj) in an objectionable but not compromising position.After Central Bureau of Investigation( CBI) took over the case from Noida Police,they arrested Rajesh Talwar’s compounder Krishna and Durrani’s domestic help Raj Kumar and questioned Aarushi’s mother Nupur Talwar, their friend and business partners Anita and Parful Durrani and a neighbour’s servant Vijay Mondal.
In these type of cases, we should remember the advice of senior journalists.We should personally avoid putting the camera and boom into someones face to improve their viewership. For instance,on May 23,the day Aarush’s father was arrested and Police claimed it to be honour killing, the Television Rating Point of Hindi news channels jumped overnight.Noida police claimed that Rajesh killed her daughter because he had found them (Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj) in an objectionable but not compromising position.
So, Journaliars should know that character assassination of a victim on the basis of inadequate informations is unprofessional and unethical.
