Sixteen months after Arushi Talwar was found murdered in her Noida flat, the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch on Monday said it has found the teenager’s mobile phone.

The phone, officers said, was traced to a bank guard in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, two days ago. The man, identified as Ram Phool, has been arrested and is being questioned, a Crime Branch official said.

Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat confirmed: “Arushi’s mobile phone has been recovered and it has been handed over to the CBI.”

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the investigations from Noida Police last June, had been unable to trace it for all these months. The agency’s joint-director Arun Kumar, who was leading the probe till recently when it was handed over to a new CBI team, had in fact said in a press conference on July 11 last year that the cellphones of Arushi and the family’s household help Hemraj had been “destroyed”.

Kumar had made the statement after arresting Rajkumar and Krishna, employed as helps in the area.

Crime Branch officials today said if it is proved that the phone found is Arushi’s, it would provide important clues about the murder. It could help the investigators ascertain the identity of those who got calls from the teenager the day she was murdered.

Arushi was found murdered on May 16 last year; Hemraj’s body was discovered on the building’s terrace the next day.

Phone ‘swept’ away?
Crime Branch sources today said a sweeper from Noida had found the phone (a black Nokia N72 model, with SIM number 9910520630) from Arushi’s father Dr Rajesh Talwar’s house after the murders. She reportedly gave it to her brother Ram Phool, who is based in Bulandshahr.

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