New Delhi: A controversial Punjabi singer who liked to pepper up his lyrics, a bubbly 14-year-old school girl and a man divided from his wife by religion – they all form parts of a baffling jigsaw of unsolved murders that Indian investigating agencies have tried to put together and failed.
We go back in history to see what went wrong in the murder mysteries of singer Amar Singh Chamkila, teenaged student Aarushi Talwar, graphic designer Rizwanur Rahman, BPO employee Jigisha Ghosh, journalist Nirupama Pathak, former union minister Lalit Narayan Mishra and actress Divya Bharti.
1. Amar Singh Chamkila
The popular but controversial Punjabi singer was shot dead at the age of 26 along with his co-singer Amarjot while they were performing in Mehsampur village in Punjab in 1988.
Chamkila courted several controversies in his time for lyrics that his detractors said promoted infidelity. Chamkila had introduced the paradigm of modern day relationships into Punjabi folk music which had, up until then, restricted itself to singing about legendary heroes, warriors and lovers from Punjabi folk-tales.
Chamkila was warned time and again about his lyrics as most of his songs centered around extra-marital relation.
There are many theories about the murders of Chamkila and Amarjot, who was reportedly pregnant at the time of her death. Bullets were pumped into the duo during a show in Punjab.
Punjab was at the height of militancy and terrorist groups were blamed for their deaths. Inter-caste tensions and professional rivalry were also attributed as causes of the killings. However, even 23 years the death of Amar Singh Chamkila remains an unsolved crime.
2. Rizwanur Rahman
The high-profile murder case of Kolkata-based graphics designer Rizwanur Rahman has gone on for three years and cemented public opinion against the state machinery and a prominent Kolkata industrialist.
Who was Rizwanur Rahman and why did he have to die? As we look back into the case that gripped a nation obsessed with happy endings, we try also to understand why his wasn’t.
Rahman, a middle class Muslim, in 2007 met Priyanka, daughter of wealthy industrialist Ashok Todi who owns the 400-crore Lux Cozy hosiery brand at a graphics designing institute where he taught.
They secretly married in August 2007 against the wishes of the Todi family. Priyanka went to live with her husband in his modest accommodation in a Muslim neighbourhood in Kolkata after the marriage.
Fearing retribution, Rahman and Priyanka are said to have sent a letter to the police asking for protection from the latter’s influential father. The couple was called to the police station several times and pressure was brought on Rahman to separate from his wife, which he refused to do. Rahman was even ready to convert to Hinduism if he and Priyanka were left in peace, media reports said.
In early September, Priyanka was called into the Todi residence by her family on the pretext that her father was ill. According to reports, she was never allowed to leave or speak to Rahman. She spoke to her new husband for the last time on Sept 11.
On September 21, Rahman's body was found near the railway tracks in north Kolkata.
The case threw into sharper relief the Hindu-Muslim divide that still exists in urban society. It also started a David Vs Goliath media campaign on the socio-economic disparity pitting the right to justice of a middle class citizen against the might of money.
The case snowballed into an unprecedented public campaign after the media reported the involvement of several top police officials who were allegedly acting on instructions of Todi to separate the couple.
The Calcutta High Court in 2007 ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Rahman. Soon after, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya transferred Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee and four other top officers and promised to take action against them if the CBI investigations found them guilty.
The CBI concluded in its investigation in 2008 that Rahman was driven to committing suicide by some of Kolkata’s top police officers and the Todi family and recommended initiation of an abetment to suicide case under Section 306 of the IPC. Ashok Todi’s brother Pradeep and brother-in-law Anil Saraogi were remanded to custody in December 2008 and were later released on bail in January 2009.
The Calcutta High Court in May 2010 directed the CBI to lodge a murder case and asked the investigating agency to submit its probe within four months. Both Ashok Todi and the CBI had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court's order.
3. Aarushi Talwar
On May 17, 2008, Aarushi Talwar, a 14-year-old school student and daughter of a dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her flat in Jal Vayu Vihar in Noida.
On the next day, domestic help Hemraj's body found on terrace of Talwar's residence. Former domestic help Vishnu Sharma was named as a suspect.
In a twist in the murder case, the Uttar Pradesh Police then arrested Arushi's father Rajesh Talwar on May 23, claiming they suspected this to be a case of honour killing. The CBI, which took over the probe, arrested Talwar's compounder Krishna on June 13.
Vijay Mondal, the domestic help of one of Talwar's neighbours, was also later arrested by the CBI. After spending 50 days in jail, Rajesh Talwar was released. The arrest followed polygraph test and Narco Analysis test.
The CBI closed the Aarushi Talwar murder case after two and a half years, citing the lack of evidence they needed to nail anyone.
The closure report says the initial handling of evidence really tied the hands of the new investigating team, which started from scratch. They even recovered Aarushi's mobile, which had been wiped clean.
Even the forensic analysis did not give them any clue. In the absence of any murder weapon/material evidence, the new team could not charge anybody for the murder of Aarushi and Hemraj.
The CBI recommended the Aarushi case closure as motive for murder could not be established, the murder weapon could not be recovered and investigations were able to conclude there was no forced entry into the house.
Investigations could not establish involvement of the three domestic helps earlier charged with the crime. Quality of evidence and forensics gathered from crime spot extremely poor, the closure report said.
All the three suspects in the case - Raj Kumar, Vijay Mandal and Krishna - will be set free. They are out on bail now.
No one knows who killed Aarushi Talwar.
4. Nirupama Pathak
The cause of death of 22-year-old journalist Nirupama Pathak is still unclear.
The young journalist’s body was found in her Jharkhand residence on April 29, 2010. Her autopsy report says that she died of suffocation.
Subha Pathak, the deceased’s mother was arrested by the Koderma police for charges of murder and Nirupama’s boyfriend Priyabanshu Ranjan who is also a journalist has also been held up.
The Jharkhand police believed that Nirupama was killed by her own family for planning to marry a former classmate from a media institute in Delhi - a man from a different caste, whose baby she was reportedly expecting.
The Pathaks denied the allegations, as Nirupama's mother, Sudha, was arrested for murder in May last year. Sudha was granted bail in August after the police failed to file a chargesheet against her. Nirupama’s case joins six others in the list of unsolved murders.
5. Lalit Narayan Mishra
The case has dragged on for 33 years in lower courts and been heard by 19 judges, but the trial for the murder of then railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra is still on, making it one of the longest running in the country. The case, with its documents running into about 11,000 pages, is perhaps the oldest case in the files of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
While one of the eight accused, all from the Hindu sect Anand Marg, has died, four defence lawyers have also passed away during the course of trial.
Mishra, a powerful politician of his time was known to be a close confidant of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, had visited Samastipur in Bihar Jan 2, 1975, to declare open a broad gauge line. A grenade was lobbed on the dais where he was present, injuring him seriously. Mishra was rushed to a Danapur hospital where he died a day later.
The chain of events following the attack further deepened the mystery shrouding what was seen as the country’s first political killing.
Mishra was taken from Samastipur to a small railway hospital in Danapur almost 150 km away when better medical facilities were available just 30 minutes away in Darbhanga.
Moreover, the train carrying him was not made to stop at Patna, where he could have got better treatment. It was also alleged that the train was held up at several places, delaying the treatment that could have saved Mishra. Also, no post-mortem was ever carried out.
The case is also the first in the country to have been transferred outside the state by the Supreme Court for fear of destruction of evidence. It was initially being heard by a Patna court from where it was transferred to Delhi’s Patiala House Court and then to the Tis Hazari Court, where it is now on.
Of the eight accused in the case - identified as Santosh Anand, Sudevanand, Gopalji, Ranjan Dwivedi, Dinyanand, Ram Kumar, Ramasray and Arthanand - the last one has died.
The Delhi High Court in December last year dismissed Dwivedi’s plea for acquittal even though he has been behind bars for 33 years.
Dwivedi had last year filed an application under Section 232 of Criminal Procedure Code. Under this section, an accused can move an application for acquittal before the trial is over if guilt is not proven after hearing the prosecution and defence evidence.
In his application, Dwivedi contended that during prosecution no major charges were proved against him.
Gopalji, Ram Kumar and Ramasray are absconding and have been declared proclaimed offenders. The seven accused who are alive are now said to be in their 60s.
About 151 witnesses have been examined and currently the defence arguments are on in the case.
6. Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati
Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others were killed in 2008 in Orissa. It is believed that Swami Lakshmanananda’s work for the upliftment of isolated tribals angered several evangelical Christian groups.
He was assassinated along with four disciples at his girls school at Tumudibandh, about 100 km from Phulbani, the district headquarters of Kandhmal district on Janmashtami. A group of 30-40 armed men surrounded the ashram and four of the assailants carried AK-47s.
Two of the four government provided security guards had gone home to eat. The assailants tied and gagged the two remaining guards.
Within minutes of the reaching the crime scene, the district authorities made a statement saying it was suspected Maoists who killed the Swami.
The police arrested an employee of the World Vision, a Christian charity, from Khadagpur who was allegedly trying to escape the district.
While the Christian angle came into the fore, a letter issued to media outlets by Maoists denied its involvement in the fatal attack on the Swami. Police said some Maoists may have been bribed by Christians to launch the attack.
Azad, a leader of the Maoist People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, claimed responsibility for the murder of Lakshmanananda.
In 2009, a young Maoist couple, Surendra and Ruppi Pidikka alias Jaya Venkwara claimed to have been involved in the Swami's killing and surrendered to the Orissa police.
The couple told the police that a six-member crack team of the Maoists, led by Orissa CPI (Maoist) leader Azad alias Duna Keshav Rao, killed the Hindu monk.
In spite of claims that the Swami's murder has been solved, it is widely believed to be a cover up, based on doubts expressed by several senior investigators and experts on left-wing extremism.
7. Satish Shetty
Whistleblower social activist Satish Shetty (39) had blown the cover off a series of land scams in and around Talegaon, Lonavala and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The RTI activist was brutally murdered by unidentified suspects as he went out for a morning walk in January 2010.
An anti-corruption crusader for the last 15 years, Shetty had started working relentlessly to expose the irregularities in government offices. Shetty had exposed many land scams in and around Talegaon and in the recent years used the Right to Information Act (RTI) to expose the setting up of restaurants and marriage halls in residential zones.
The murder came as a major threat to RTI activists working in the area and an embarrassment for the police as Shetty had sought protection after having received threats to his life. He had started using the Right to Information (RTI) Act for the last five years to expose the corrupt.
It is believed that the suspects who murdered Shetty were the same ones who, a year later, attacked another RTI activist Arun Mane.
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