Aarushi Talwar & Hemraj Banjade - Part 1

Start from the beginning
                                    

- The internet router was used for the last time at 12:08am. Based on this, CBI inferred that Rajesh was online until 12:08am.

- The exact sequence of events between midnight and 6:00am could not be determined by the investigators with certainty. According to their post-mortem reports, Aarushi and Hemraj were killed between 12:00am and 1:00am.


 The 1300 sq. foot apartment had 3 bedrooms, a drawing-dining room and a servants' quarters, where Hemraj slept. Rajesh and Nupur slept in the master bedroom, while Aarushi slept in an adjacent room. Hemraj's room had a separate entry from outside the apartment; it also opened into the apartment from the inside.

The entrance to the Talwars' apartment at Jalvayu Vihar had 3 doors: the outermost grill gate, a middle grill door located in the passageway, and the innermost wooden door. Hemraj's room had 2 doors - 1 door opened inside the apartment, and the other door was located between the 2 grill doors. The Talwars had the outermost gate removed a year after the murders. 

 

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.


On 16th May 2008, the family's housemaid Bharati Mandal rang their doorbell around 6am. She had been employed 6 days earlier. Every day, Hemraj would open the door for her, as Nupur and Rajesh were late risers, but this time, nobody opened the door even after she rang a second time. She later stated that she tried pushing the outermost gate, but it did not open. 

After Bharati rang the doorbell a third time, Nupur opened the innermost wooden door. Speaking through the mesh of the middle grill door, she told Bharati that this door was locked from outside. She asked Bharati about the whereabouts of Hemraj. When Bharati said that she had no idea, Nupur remarked that Hemraj must have gone outside to fetch milk and must have locked the door from outside. She asked Bharati to wait outside until Hemraj returned. Bharati did not want to wait and asked Nupur to throw the keys. Nupur asked her to go downstairs so that she could throw the keys from the balcony. 

Nupur then called Hemraj's phone, but the call was abruptly cut. When she tried calling him again, the phone appeared to have been switched off. When Bharati reached downstairs, Nupur asked her to go back and check if the door was just latched, not locked. Bharati insisted that Nupur throw the keys anyway, so that she wouldn't have to take the stairs again, in case the door was locked. Nupur then threw the keys down to Bharati. 

According to the Talwars, by this time, Rajesh also woke up. He entered the living room and saw a near empty Scotch whiskey bottle on the dining table, which surprised him. He asked Nupur who had kept the bottle there, and then alarmed, asked her to check Aarushi's room. Aarushi's room had a self locking door, and it would generally be locked. It could be opened only from inside or from outside with a key. But the couple found it unlocked on that morning. When they entered the room, they saw Aarushi's dead body lying on her bed. Rajesh started screaming, while Nupur remained silent, due to shock, according to her. 

True Crime CollectionWhere stories live. Discover now