New team takes over Arushi probe after initial CBI flop

The transfer of investigation comes amid fresh revelations of alleged lapses in the probe,including a possibility that the vaginal swab sent to the forensic laboratory was not Arushi’s.

The investigations have now been handed over to Superintendent of Police (Dehradun) Nilabh Kishore,who is also handling the alleged fake encounter in Dehradun of an MBA graduate from Ghaziabad. The probe would be under the overall supervision of Lucknow CBI joint director Javed Ahmad and additional director S C Sinha.

CBI director Ashwani Kumar issued the notification about the case transfer today.

CBI took over the case from Noida police on May 31,2008. Led by Arun Kumar,the team conducted several tests,including lie-detection,brain-mapping and narco-analysis,on the three suspects — Krishna,Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal — and on Arushi’s parents Dr Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.

According to a source,the CBI director was unhappy with Arun Kumar’s “line of investigation” ever since he joined last year. “The case was transferred to Dehradun since no development has emerged in the investigation even after all these months,” the source said. “The forensic reports have also gone against CBI’s line of probe.

The agency wants to file a report in the case at the earliest since it now wants to finalise every probe within a year,the official said. The new team,the source said,would begin the probe anew after it has emerged that the vaginal swabs purported to be Arushi’s were found misplaced,or not taken at all.

“There was no semen,as alleged initially,in the slides sent to the forensic laboratory and corroborative testing revealed that the material was not drawn from Arushi,” the official said.

Task for fresh team
Probe ‘change’ of vaginal swabs and missing pathology report at dist hospital
Analyse reports of various tests done by the CBI Delhi team handling case previously
Re-examine the crime spot (to take place this week,as per sources)
Question all suspects and victim’s family members