Aarushi murder: CBI probing DNA sample tampering

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) yesterday maintained it "knew for eight months" that the vaginal swabs of murdered teenager victim Aarushi Talwar may have been substituted. It added that it was probing the tampering of evidence in the sensational Noida double murder.

"Our investigators have been following this angle for the last eight months and will soon file a status report in the Supreme Court," CBI spokesman Harsh Bhal said when he was asked about media reports that the DNA sample of the teenage victim had been swapped with that of an unidentified woman.

Aarushi, 14, a student at the Delhi Public School in Noida, was murdered at her Jalvayu Vihar apartment on May 16, 2008. Hemraj, the family's domestic help, was found murdered a day later on the terrace of the house.

"There is nothing new in it [the allegations of tampering] as far as investigations are considered," Bhal said.

However, Bhal refused to divulge any more details and only said the murder was being investigated and revealing information would be subjudice.

"Nothing can be shared with the media right now."

Seventeen months since then, the double murder still remains one of the country's biggest 'whodunit' cases.

After meandering through unexpected twists and turns, the probe into the double murder had almost reached a dead-end.

All those who were picked up for interrogation in the initial weeks of the murder - Aarushi's father and dentist Rajesh Talwar, his medical assistant Krishna and two other domestic helps, Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal - are all out while the CBI still continues to hunt for material evidence.

However, the latest revelation that vaginal swabs drawn from Aarushi were swapped has reinvigorated the interest of the public and media in the case.

There have been allegations that a pathologist, Richa Saxena, who works for a government hospital in Noida, tampered with the DNA samples.

Saxena, who collected the swab samples taken by Sunil Dohre during postmortem, said that there was no mix-up.

"It is a sheer mischief to rake up another controversy," Saxena told IANS.