The Talvar case

 A Double Murder in India

I was watching a true crime series on YouTube today with my wife when the name of the family involved hit a nerve. The Talvar double murder occurred in India in 2008 and is still a hot debate to this day.

I will discuss this item by relating the facts as I see them, while not expressing my views until the end; after that, I will leave the verdict to my readers.

The main reason for suspecting the parents is that at the time of the killings, there were four people in the house, and two were now dead. The suspect pool for this case is virtually non-existent.

The murder concerns two people, a servant, and a 16-year-old girl. From the start, the public and press attacked the police for botching up the case, which they did. But, the first attempt the police had to search the premises was unsuccessful because, rather than contact the police, the parents phoned family and friends, it was one of the friends NOT the parents who contacted the police, (strange). 

By the time the police arrived, there were over 20 people milling around the house, any evidence that may have been there was either corrupted or missing by this time.

True they didn't close the area, but after so many people had been in the house was there any reason to?

The first thing the father said was the servant had killed his daughter, only because he couldn't be found; the father had no proof the servant had been involved.

When the police arrived, they checked the girl's room and found she had been covered with a sheet. Her injuries were so horrid that hardened officers had trouble viewing the scene.

Outside her door were drag marks that appeared to show a body had been dragged to the balcony. The door was locked, and when asked for the keys, the father couldn't find them, The police broke the lock to find the body of the missing servant; the body was in such a state of decay it was impossible to say how he died. What was obvious is that he'd died not long before the girl two days earlier.

At one stage, the police suspected three teens, one of whom had been castigated by the father for shoddy work in his dental surgery. However, all the boys had alibis.

While his wife stayed by him, it was an "open secret" the father was having a relationship with the wife of the partner in the surgery.

One theory is the servant was attempting to blackmail the father, and was killed; the girl was killed because she was a witness to the crime.

Another theory is the father killed the servant after finding him in a compromising position, not making love, with his daughter. The girl could have been slain to save her honor.

There is no doubt that errors were made by the police, as several changes in the officers looking into the case ensued, but the police are not entirely at fault. Some of the DNA samples sent to the labs for examination had been tampered with and were not those of the daughter. Whether this was done by the police, as one family member phoned a high-ranking friend and asked him to hide evidence of a sex crime, or by the lab has not been solved.

The case went from local police to Delhi police, then to state police, and finally to the Indian High Court in Allahabad where it was deemed the father committed the killings.

The family still thinks the father is innocent, and the wife was never charged, but there is no doubt she knew what was going on.

One piece of evidence not shown, or mentioned, in the film is a cut to the girl's throat. The most known theory said it was done by a kukri, as the servant had one as he was from Nepal, 

After some research into the case, I found out the cut on her throat was done by a thin-bladed knife, and was about five inches long. A cut that went done her windpipe that sharply would need medical skills the servant didn't have.

The reason for the murder is shrouded in mystery, and I think it will remain so. To this day, the family is fighting to clear the father of this hideous crime.