Book on Aarushi Talwar's murder case takes critical look at judicial system

NEW DELHI: Delay in justice delivery as in case of Aarushi Talwar's murder is a sad reflection on both judiciary and the society, argues Rajesh Talwar, a legal officer with the UN and author of a book on this Noida teenager who was found dead on this day 13 years ago.

"A fast-track court alone doesn't help. We need more sensitive and competent judges to deal with certain kinds of cases," he says.

In his book "The Killing of Aarushi and the Murder of Justice", he cites the need for far better expert opinion, and a better quality of judge to assess that opinion and other evidence.

The Aarushi murder case is yet to be solved.

Talwar shares how medical experts on behalf of the prosecution were completely self-contradictory and extraordinarily foolish, how the so-called experts were not aware of completely normal gynaecological occurrence and how all the evidence was destroyed by the investigators themselves.

According to Talwar, what such cases and the ones that follow tell about the judiciary is really its crumbling state, where the only real debate possible is whether the justice system is going to collapse, or has already collapsed.

"What it tells about the society is that our leaders do not do forward planning even on extremely important issues, be it in respect of coronavirus or justice delivery," he says.

He argues that this whole business of appointing a fast-track court is nothing else but "sleight of hand".

It soothes the public, says Talwar, adding "Every time there is an Aarushi, a Nirbhaya, a Jessica Lal, or a Priyadarshini Mattoo case, there is a hue and cry and the government orders the case to be set on the fast-track rails."

He is of the opinion that justice for women will not improve till the time there is an overall improvement in justice.

"And that will not happen till such time that we have a massive increase in investment in the justice system." Talwar also cites lack of proper database management and tracking as a reason behind increase in crime against women.

"Among rapists, it is the paedophiles who are known to be repeat offenders. A few months after the charges against the accused paedophile or rapist are drawn up, the man will be out on bail, and he will remain on bail for possibly a decade, during which period his name cannot be on any database because he has not yet been convicted," he says.

As a result of the delays in the judicial system, these paedophile rapists roam completely free, during long periods of delayed justice continuing to live wherever they want, possibly in an area full of young children playing in the park for instance, and preying on any other young child, being now better trained on how to avoid detection as a result of their court and jail experiences, he adds.

Delays in the justice delivery system as in case of Aarushi murder make the falsely accused such as the Talwars as well as victims suffer much more, he says.

"There is no closure. It's terrible to think of the torture the Talwars underwent. The Supreme Court verdict still hangs over their head," he adds.