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94-429: Rahasya ( transl.  Mystery ) is a 2015 Indian murder mystery film which is directed by Manish Gupta . The film stars Kay Kay Menon , Tisca Chopra , Ashish Vidyarthi , Mita Vashisht and Ashwini Kalsekar . The film is inspired by the 2008 Noida double murder case , which was met with some criticism by Rajesh and Nupur Talwar. The film was released on 30 January 2015 to positive reviews. Remy Fernandes,

188-456: A drawing - dining room and a servants' quarters , where Hemraj slept. Rajesh and Nupur slept in the master bedroom , while Aarushi slept in an adjacent room. Hemraj's room had a separate entry from outside the apartment; it also opened into the apartment from inside. The entrance to the Talwars' apartment at Jalvayu Vihar had three doors: the outermost grill gate, a middle mesh door, and

282-445: A drunk state, and unable to control his anger, Sachin attacks Riyaz with a surgical knife, injuring him on the arm. In a bid to save Riyaz, Ayesha hits her father on the head and he falls unconscious. Panicked, the two drag Sachin to his room and put him to bed. Riyaz leaves and Ayesha goes to sleep. Paraskar is thus convinced that Sachin is not the killer. Brinda hires a prominent lawyer, who succeeds in getting Sachin out on bail. After

376-472: A five-star hotel. Once, while following Sachin and Brinda, he spots Ayesha and Riyaz in the same hotel. Sachin also sees his daughter and warns Ayesha to break up with Riyaz. The two separate but Riyaz continues to sneak into Ayesha's house when her parents are away. Hansal, who lives in the building right across the Mahajans', sees Riyaz enter the house one night, and deliberately calls Sachin to inform him. In

470-407: A golf club. Weapon used for slitting the throats The weapon used for slitting the throats of the victims was never found. The identical measurements of the lacerated wounds indicated that the same weapon was used on both the victims. In May 2008, the forensic scientists remarked that the wounds displayed a "clinical precision and careful thought", as they were inflicted at the right spot to cut

564-529: A house maid, is seen praying in the servant quarters of Dr. Sachin Mahajan's plush duplex flat in Mumbai. Carrying a cup of tea, Remy knocks on the room door of Ayesha, the 18-year-old daughter of Dr. Sachin. With no response, Remy enters the room to find Ayesha's dead body on the bed. Horrified, she screams and calls for Dr. Sachin and the police. Sachin says he doesn't remember a thing from the previous night as he

658-416: A hurry to cremate the body, it was decomposing fast, and the family elders were pushing for cremation. In addition, the police confirmed that the body was not needed for any further examination. The police later alleged that the Talwars' domestic staff showed undue haste in cleaning Aarushi's room. In Talwars' defence, their compounder Vikas Sethi told the court that he had received the permission to clean

752-409: A key (If both the keys were inside and CBI was right, it could mean that the parents locked the door, then went inside their apartment through Hemraj's door which they locked from inside, in order to mislead the investigators). However, later, the maid Bharati's testimony in the court established that the door was merely latched from outside. Thus, if the killers were not the parents, they could have shut

846-462: A key. Usually, her room would be locked at the night, and its keys would be at Nupur's bedside. There was no sign of forced entry in Aarushi's room. On the morning of 16 May, the key was found in its shoe-shaped key ring, on top of a framed wall sculpture near the house entrance, in the living room. Nupur later told police that she was not sure whether she closed Aarushi's door the last time she entered

940-434: A kukri. Aarushi's body lay on her bed, covered with a white flannel blanket. Her face was covered with her schoolbag . There was blood on the pillow, the bed, the walls, the floor and the front side of the bedroom door. However, there was no blood on the toys, the schoolbag and the pink pillow kept on the back of the bed. These items were within the range of the splashed blood area, which indicates that they were placed on

1034-467: A live-in domestic worker employed by her family. The two were killed on the night of 15–16 May 2008 at Aarushi's home in Noida , India . The case aroused public interest as a whodunit story. The sensational media coverage, which included salacious allegations against Aarushi and the suspects, was criticised by many as a trial by media . When Aarushi's body was discovered in her bedroom on 16 May, Hemraj

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1128-484: A panel from the roof cooler. The body appeared to have been dragged towards to AC unit, as the quantity of blood was more near the AC unit. An expert from FSL Gandhinagar as well as a team of experts from CFSL concluded that the drag mark on the roof resulted from a blood-soaked body being dragged after being kept in a bed sheet. This raised suspicion that Hemraj might have been killed somewhere else, and his body dragged to

1222-402: A statement that suited the line of investigation at the time." There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, and the middle grill door had been found latched from the outside in the morning. There were two known sets of keys to the house entrance. One set was with the Talwars, and another with Hemraj. Nupur threw down one bunch of keys to the maid on the morning of 16 May. According to

1316-408: Is infertile so the couple decided to adopt a child. Sachin pretends to adopt a child, bringing home his daughter with Remy. He also hires Remy as a full-time maid and nanny. As Ayesha begins to grow, Aarti notices the striking similarity between her daughter and Remy, and realises the truth. As revenge, she plots to frame her husband when she gets the opportunity. Paraskar reveals that Aarti had returned

1410-417: Is killed as well. Paraskar then interrogates Remy, and it is revealed that she had previously given birth, contrary to her earlier claims of never having been in a relationship. He meets her mother, who points out to a picture of a younger Remy, and the pieces finally fall in place, ending the investigation. At the hotel, Sachin's dead body is found and the local police conclude that he committed suicide due to

1504-413: Is thus taken under judicial custody. The case goes to Central Bureau Investigation Department Officer Sunil Paraskar takes charge. Not convinced with the evidence, he begins a fresh investigation. He soon discovers that Sachin is having an extra-marital affair with Brinda, a former actress who is married to Sachin's colleague, Dr. Hansal. Hansal is aware of the relationship and the couples frequent stays in

1598-506: The 'narco' interrogation conducted on the three men, the CBI assumed that they had killed Aarushi after an attempted sexual assault, and Hemraj for being a witness. The CBI was accused of using dubious methods to extract a confession, and all the three men were released for lack of evidence. In 2009, the CBI handed over the investigation to a new team, which recommended closing the case. Based on circumstantial evidence , it named Rajesh Talwar as

1692-882: The Crime Doctor , Warren William as the Lone Wolf and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. These smaller budget films led to more major productions such as John Huston 's The Maltese Falcon (1941) while Murder, My Sweet (1944) introduced the character Philip Marlowe to film. Marlowe would appear again in The Big Sleep (1946) while other films author Martin Rubin deemed as notable detective mysteries included Laura (1944). These detective films drew upon thriller and thriller-related genres with their nocturnal atmosphere and style influenced by expressionism . They often overlapped with film noir , which arose in

1786-706: The Fortis Hospital , where Rajesh headed the dental department. In addition, Rajesh taught at the ITS dental college in Greater Noida . Anita and Praful Durrani, another dentist couple and close family friends of the Talwars, lived in the same city. The couple shared the Noida clinic with the Talwars: Rajesh and Anita worked at the clinic in the mornings (9 am–12 pm), while Praful and Nupur worked there in

1880-509: The Ganges river as per the Hindu custom. Several visitors continued to arrive at the Talwars' house (which was being managed by Dinesh Talwar) with their condolences. These visitors included retired police officer K.K. Gautam, who had been requested by Sushil Chaudhury to come to the Talwars' house. After arriving at the house, Gautam examined the rooms of Aarushi and Hemraj. Dinesh then showed him

1974-409: The rigor mortis was setting in. He thus concluded that Aarushi's private parts appeared to have been cleaned after she died. Hemraj's body had been dragged at least 20 feet on the terrace after his death, as evident by a blood trail and abrasion - contusion on his elbows. The body was lying on the left of the roof entrance near the external unit of the air conditioner (AC), and was covered by

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2068-405: The windpipe and dissect the vital left common carotid artery which supplies oxygenated blood to the brain. Initially, when the Noida police first suspected the parents, they stated that the weapon used was a "surgical knife". By June 2008, the CBI's suspicion had shifted to the three Nepali men, and the weapon was believed to be a kukri , a type of Nepali knife. The second CBI team returned to

2162-486: The "surgical instrument" theory. In 2013, CBI told the court that according to the faculty at the Talwars' alma mater Maulana Azad Medical College , their dental students were taught surgery. The defence argued that a dentist's scalpel has a cutting surface of about a centimeter: the instrument is too delicate to cut through the carotid artery. According to the defence witness Dr. RK Sharma, the wounds could have been caused by surgical scalpel No. 10 (not used by dentists) or

2256-568: The 1930s predominantly relied on mystery literature for inspiration. About every character from the 1930s drew from literature, such as Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Thatcher Colt , Perry Mason, and Mr. Wong . The 1930s featured many female detectives of various ages from Nancy Drew, Torchy Blane and Hildegarde Withers while the 1940s had none. Productions in the 1930s were occasionally A-budget pictures such as The Black Camel (1931), Aresene Lupin (1932) and The Thin Man (1934). By

2350-505: The 1940s many were sourced from comics and radio series. Towards the 1940s these series were predominantly produced as b-movies , with nearly no mystery series being developed by the 1950s. Around the 2020s a wave of popular theatrical straight mystery films were released theatrically including Kenneth Brannagh 's Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Rian Johnson 's Knives Out (2019) as well as on streaming services with

2444-549: The 1940s, film detectives came from multiple sources such as radio and comic strips and many others had original scripts. MGM, Warner Brothers, and Paramount had generally halted their production of mystery films by 1942 leaving production to these films being made by RKO , Columbia , Universal and other more minor studios. This led to what author Ron Backer described as 1940s mystery films as being "almost always B-productions" with actors who were "past their prime". These included Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, Warner Baxter as

2538-594: The Aarushi murder case. Rahasya was issued a U/A certificate by the Censor Board in January 2014 and they deemed that the film was dissimilar to the murder case. The Talwar family initially requested permission to screen Rahasya before it released to the general public and upon receiving no response from Gupta or the production company, filed a case against the film stating that they felt that it would potentially distort facts about their daughter's death. The case

2632-500: The CBI court later in 2012, stated that Chaudhury had requested him to get any references to a sexual assault removed from the post-mortem report, but he refused to oblige. He told the court that he had mentioned this incident to the first CBI team, but they left out this information from their records. On the morning of 16 May, the visitors to the Talwars' house noticed some bloodstains on the terrace door handle. Rajesh's former colleagues Rajiv Kumar Varshney and Rohit Kochhar later told

2726-431: The CBI team, 90% of the evidence at the crime scene was destroyed due to the police's negligence. According to their post-mortem reports, both Aarushi and Hemraj died between 12 am and 1 am. Both had been first attacked with a heavy blunt weapon , which caused a "U/V-shaped" scar and resulted in their deaths. Then, their throats were slit with a sharp weapon. There was no sign of asphyxia . Weapon used for inflicting

2820-406: The CBI, Nupur had taken these keys from Hemraj's room. According to Nupur, Hemraj's keys would usually be kept on the sideboard , but she couldn't find them on that morning; so, she threw down her own keys to the maid. The question whether this key was that of Nupur or Hemraj was initially relevant to the investigation, as there were reports that the middle grill door had been locked from outside with

2914-554: The Nile (2022). Other variations of included Rian Johnson 's Knives Out which was not an adaptation of a golden age work, but was Johnson's first foray into the "puzzle-mystery" style, and was the second highest-grossing film in America in 2019. 2008 Noida double murder case The 2008 Noida double murder case refers to the unsolved murders of 13-year-old girl Aarushi Talwar and 45-year-old man Hemraj Banjade ,

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3008-547: The Talwar family, who stated that they would seek legal recourse against any media adaptation of the murder case. Gupta later responded to this by stating that the film was intended to be a complete work of fiction and that he did not use any of the real names of people involved with the murder. He went on to say that the film would center upon a CBI investigator trying to uncover the truth of his daughter's murder and that he had never definitively stated that Rahasya would be based on

3102-401: The Talwars' lawyer Pinaki Mishra, those who had found Hemraj's body saw hair in his mouth, possibly that of his killer. However, the police did not check this. Unlike Aarushi's body, which had undigested food in the stomach, Hemraj had just 25 ml of liquid in his stomach, indicating that he did not have dinner. This evidence was also supported by the fact that his dinner was found untouched in

3196-543: The Talwars' neighbour Puneesh Tandon if he had a duplicate key to the Talwars' terrace, to which Tandon replied in the negative. Ultimately, Dataram Nauneria broke open the lock. As the group entered the terrace, they saw bloody drag marks. A body "in advanced stage of putrefaction " was discovered lying in a pool of blood at about 10:30 am. Dinesh Talwar couldn't identify the newly discovered body, and called Rajesh and Nupur (who were on their way to Haridwar), asking them to return home. Meanwhile, SP Mahesh Mishra also reached

3290-401: The Talwars, by this time, Rajesh also woke up. He entered the living room and saw a near-empty Scotch whisky bottle on the dining table, which surprised him. He asked Nupur who had kept the bottle there, and then alarmed, asked her to check Aarushi's room. Aarushi's room had a self-locking door, and it would generally be locked. It could be opened only from inside or from outside with a key. But

3384-452: The affidavit. Mystery film While cinema featured characters such as Sherlock Holmes in the early 1900s, several other Sherlock Holmes likes characters appeared such as Boston Blackie and The Lone Wolf . Several series of mystery films started in the 1930s with major studios featuring detectives like Nick and Nora Charles , Perry Mason , Nancy Drew and Charlie Chan . While original mystery film series were based on novels, by

3478-467: The apartment to inform the neighbours. She returned to the house and asked the Talwars if they wanted her to do the daily household chores . When they said "No", she moved on to work in other households. The Talwars called their family and friends. Puneesh Rai Tandon, a neighbour who lived one floor below the Talwars, asked the Jalvayu Vihar security guard Virendra Singh to inform the police. By

3572-401: The apartment, she saw Rajesh and Nupur crying. Nupur asked her to come inside Aarushi's room. Bharati stood at the entrance of the room, as Nupur walked inside. Aarushi's body lay on her bed; it was covered with a flannel blanket. Nupur pulled the blanket, and Bharati saw that Aarushi's throat was slit. Both the parents blamed Hemraj for Aarushi's murder in front of the maid. Bharati walked out of

3666-425: The bed after the murder. Aarushi's body lay undisturbed on the bed, and the bed sheet was laid out smoothly. According to the CBI, no bloodstains were found on the book The 3 Mistakes of My Life , which Aarushi was supposedly reading before her murder. The 2008 post-mortem report written by Dr. Sunil Dohre marked Aarushi's genital area as "nothing abnormal detected", thus ruling out a sexual assault, but also noted

3760-628: The beginning of sound film , mystery film series came into their own with Philo Vance in the 1929 film The Canary Murder Case .A series of films continued in until 1947. Other series followed such as Charlie Chan which began in 1931 and ended in 1949 with 44 films produced. In the 1930s, most of the major Hollywood film studios produced mystery series, with MGM having Nick and Nora Charles and Joel and Garda Sloane, Warner Bros. having Perry Mason , Torchy Blane , Brass Bancroft and Nancy Drew . Universal had Bill Crane while Fox had Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto . American mystery film series of

3854-403: The blood stains on the terrace door handle. According to Gautam, Dinesh requested him to get the terrace door unlocked. Gautam then called SP Mahesh Mishra, and told him that the lock needed to be broken. Mishra promised that he would himself visit the crime scene, and meanwhile, sent the station officer Dataram Nauneria to the apartment. The key to the terrace was still missing. Anita Durrani asked

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3948-400: The bloodstains might have been left by the group that tried taking Aarushi's mattress to the Talwars' terrace. Kocchar stated that the bloodstains on the terrace door were brought to the attention of a police constable named Akhilesh Kumar. Praful Durrani, who also visited the house, claimed that the policeman initially dismissed the spot on the terrace door as rust, and was also dismissive of

4042-410: The bloodstains on the floor. According to Varshney, the police told him that the killer must have tried to escape through or hide weapon on the terrace, but returned after finding it locked. Eventually, the police were persuaded to investigate the terrace, but they could not get the key to the terrace door. Rohit Kochhar later testified that when a policeman asked Rajesh for the terrace key, he "went into

4136-425: The blunt injury In May 2008, the forensic scientists stated that Aarushi was first assaulted with "a heavy sharp-edged weapon". The first hit on the forehead resulted in her death within two minutes, as indicated by the blood clot size. In 2012, after Aarushi's parents were charged with the murder, the CBI claimed that according to the experts, the "dimensions of the striking distance" of one of Rajesh's golf clubs

4230-507: The body of Hemraj, which was lying on the adjacent terrace, separated by a grilled wall. According to CBI, when the post-mortem report was being written between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on 16 May, a series of telephonic conversations had happened between Dinesh Talwar, Dr. Sushil Chaudhury (Dinesh's friend and the chairman of the ICARE Eye Hospital) and K K Gautam (retired Deputy Superintendent of Police). K K Gautam, while deposing at

4324-413: The call was abruptly cut. When she tried calling him again, the phone appeared to have been switched off. When Bharati reached downstairs, Nupur asked her to go back and check if the door was just latched , not locked. Bharati insisted that Nupur throw the keys anyway, so that she wouldn't have to take the stairs again, in case the door was locked. Nupur then threw the keys down to Bharati. According to

4418-417: The classical mystery fiction, such as the parodic Murder Mystery starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston which was one of Netflix's most popular films of 2019. Sandberg noted that only by the 2020s, specifically with Kenneth Branagh 's 2017 The Murder on the Orient Express had the genre been financially successful again with more than $ 350 million grossed worldwide, leading to a sequel Death on

4512-422: The couple found it unlocked on that morning. When they entered the room, they saw Aarushi's dead body lying on her bed. Rajesh started screaming, while Nupur remained silent (due to shock, according to her). Meanwhile, Bharati returned to the outermost gate: she pushed it, and it opened without the key. She found that the middle door was latched, but not locked. She opened the latch and walked in. When she entered

4606-446: The court that there was no liquor in any of the glasses. He also stated that he had not suggested presence of three people in the room, based on the state of the mattress. When questioned about the discrepancies, he stated that the investigating officer should be asked why his statements were not recorded correctly. He stated that an officer from the first CBI team "distorted several things he said, added things he did not say, and produced

4700-431: The door for her, as Nupur and Rajesh were late risers, but this time, nobody opened the door even after she rang a second time. She later stated that she tried pushing the outermost gate, but it did not open. After Bharati rang the doorbell a third time, Nupur opened the innermost wooden door. Speaking through the mesh of the middle grill door, she told Bharati that this door was locked from outside. She asked Bharati about

4794-473: The emotional quotient of the parents being accused of murdering their only daughter, something that the Indian audience has always felt for." Shooting for the film completed prior to the verdict announcement and Gupta stated that he was not using the film to "pass a verdict" on anyone involved with the case. The production, along with two similar proposed films by different filmmakers, was met with some criticism by

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4888-566: The evenings (5 pm–7 pm). The Durranis and the Talwars also shared a clinic in Hauz Khas area of Delhi . Yam Prasad Banjade, better known as Hemraj, was the Talwar family's live-in domestic help and cook . He belonged to Dharapani village in the Arghakhanchi district of Nepal . The murders on the night of 15–16 May 2008 were preceded by the following events: The 1300 sq. ft. apartment had 3 bedrooms(including servants' room),

4982-475: The gate was originally latched from inside: when Bharati went down to fetch the keys, Nupur came to the passage via Hemraj's room, and unlatched it. In September 2012, the defence claimed that the maid Bharati Mandal was a tutored witness, as she told the court Jo samjhaya gaya wahi bayan de rahi hu ("I am saying whatever I was explained.") However, Bharati denied that she had given any incorrect statement under CBI's pressure. The defence stated that this door

5076-443: The guilt from the case. However, Paraskar is not convinced and summons Aarti, Remy, Brinda, Hansal, Riyaz's parents and local police officers to the Mahajan house, where Ayesha was killed. He reveals that Ayesha was not the biological child of Aarti but was instead the daughter of Remy. Remy and Sachin had an affair when they were younger, but class differences did not allow Sachin to marry her, so he married Aarti instead. However, Aarti

5170-431: The house and did not come out for a long time." Varshney told the court that Rajesh went "towards staircase and immediately returned and went inside the house". Rajesh later stated that he does not have exact recollection of what happened at that time, but he insisted that he never stopped the investigators from visiting any part of the house. Ultimately, the police were unable to open the door and let it remain locked until

5264-401: The house from the police personnel and a lady constable present on the crime scene. A part of Aarushi's blood-stained mattress was cut out and sent to the forensics lab along with her pillow, bed sheet and clothes. Vikas Sethi later testified that he, along with three others, tried to dump the remaining part of the mattress on the terrace, but found it locked. An old lady then told him to put

5358-403: The innermost wooden door (which automatically locked when shut), and then latched the middle grill door from outside. When the maid, Bharati, visited the house on the morning of 16 May, she tried to push the outermost gate but could not open it. When she came back at the gate after collecting the bunch of keys (which Nupur had thrown down), she could open it by pushing it. The CBI theorized that

5452-462: The innermost wooden door. The middle door and the wooden door were attached to the same frame Hemraj's room had two doors - one door opened inside the apartment, and the other door was located between the two grill doors. The Talwars had the outermost gate removed a year after the murders. On 16 May 2008, the family's housemaid Bharati Mandal (35) rang their doorbell around 6 am. She had been employed six days earlier. Every day, Hemraj would open

5546-468: The investigation. At times the viewer is presented with information not available to the main character. The central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy. During the early 20th century, there was substantial overlap between the genres of detective film and horror film , and the term "mystery" was used to encompass both. The works of Arthur Conan Doyle were often adapted to

5640-757: The judgment was based on weak evidence. The Talwars successfully challenged the decision in the Allahabad High Court , which acquitted them in 2017. The case remains unsolved. Aarushi Talwar (24 May 1994 – 16 May 2008) was a 13-year-old student at the Delhi Public School . She was the daughter of a dentist couple, Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar. The family lived in an apartment in Sector 25 (Jalvayu Vihar) of Noida , Uttar Pradesh , India . Rajesh and Nupur practiced together at their clinic in Sector 27 of Noida. They also saw patients at

5734-414: The kitchen on the morning of 16 May. In 2012, during proceedings against Aarushi's parents as suspects, Dr. Naresh Raj told the court that Hemraj's penis was swollen when his body was brought for autopsy. According to him, this meant that he was either in middle of a sexual intercourse , or was about to have one. The defence lawyer cited a medical book which stated that this swelling of penis after death

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5828-428: The mattress on the neighbouring terrace. Rajesh's driver Sharma then asked the neighbour Puneesh Tandon for the key to his terrace. Earlier, at 4 pm also, Sharma had asked Tandon for the key, saying that he needed to dump the ice brought for Aarushi's body. This time, Tandon opened the terrace himself. Sharma, Sethi and two others dragged the mattress to his terrace. Tandon then locked the terrace door. None of them noticed

5922-427: The mid-1940s and was coined by French critics in 1946. The style was not acknowledge by American filmmakers, critics or audiences while these films were being developed until the 1970s. Mystery films series disappeared by the 1950s. With the exception of Miss Marple films in the 1960s, it was rare to find films with a female lead that had any sequels. Bran Nicol found that the more traditional "clue-puzzle mystery"

6016-559: The next day. Superintendent of Police (SP) Mahesh Mishra testified that he had asked for the terrace door to be opened on 16 May. However, his subordinates told him that Rajesh Talwar couldn't find the key and they couldn't find a mechanic to break open the door. He also stated that he had filed a report on this "carelessness" with the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Noida. On the morning of 17 May, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar left for Haridwar to immerse Aarushi's ashes in

6110-413: The night Ayesha died and not the next day as she had claimed. She was the one who killed Ayesha and later killed Chetan as well, since he had seen her walking out of Ayesha's room covered in blood. To complete her revenge, Aarti then visits Sachin under the guise of serving him divorce papers, and kills him. Finally, Paraskar reveals that Riyaz and Sudhakar Mishra were killed by a corrupt local policeman, who

6204-403: The parodic Murder Mystery (2019) starring Adam Sandler . Mystery films mainly focus on a crime or a puzzle , usually a murder , which must then be solved by policemen , private detectives , or amateur sleuths. The viewer is presented with a series of suspects who have a motive to commit the crime but did not actually do it, and whom the investigator must eliminate during the course of

6298-433: The police that they saw bloodstains on the terrace door, its lock and the staircase leading to the terrace. While visiting the Talwars' house, Varshney had taken the stairs to the terrace. However, several other witnesses testified that they had not noticed any bloodstains on the staircase in the morning. These witnesses included several police officers, Umesh Sharma, Puneesh Rai Tandon, Bharati Mandal and Vikas Sethi. Thus,

6392-506: The police to pursue Hemraj instead of wasting time in the apartment, and offered them 25,000 rupees to rush to Hemraj's native village in Nepal . The police suspected that Hemraj entered Aarushi's room in an inebriated state after consuming Scotch whisky, and tried to sexually assault her. When she resisted, he killed her with a kukri (a Nepali knife). The police announced a reward of ₹ 20,000 for tips leading to his capture. Aarushi's body

6486-494: The presence of a "whitish discharge" at her vagina. The whitish discharge sample was sent for pathological examination at the local district hospital, which reported absence of semen. However, later, in 2009, when this vaginal swab sample was sent to CBI's forensic labs, it was suspected to have been tampered with ( see below ). Ultimately, the CBI concluded that the sample had got contaminated, but not deliberately tampered with. Later, gynaecologist Dr. Urmila Sharma testified that

6580-572: The room at 11:00 pm, and if she did, she might have let the keys hanging in the key slot. She claims to have stated this in several lie detector, brain mapping and narco-analysis tests that she cleared. In 2013, the SP Mahesh Kumar Mishra told the court that, on 16 May 2008, Rajesh Talwar claimed that he had locked Aarushi's room from outside at 11:30 pm on the previous night. Rajesh also told him that he had forgotten to lock his own bedroom door from inside, and someone could have stolen

6674-400: The same day. At Haridwar, Rajesh entered the time of Aarushi's death as 2 am in the priest's records. An autopsy of Hemraj's body was conducted at night by Dr. Naresh Raj. The UP police did not cordon off the crime scene immediately, and many people, including the media, were freely roaming in the apartment without any permission when the forensic team arrived to gather evidence. According to

6768-563: The same trade paper stated that "strange as it may seem, the story of crime mystery is fast degenerating into one of stock properties." There were several mystery and detective films produced during the silent film era, including numerous films involving Sherlock Holmes, Boston Blackie and The Lone Wolf . Mystery and detective films were among the most popular genres of the silent film era. This ranged to American, British, German and Danish adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and European series like Nick Carter , Nat Pinkerton and Miss Nobody. With

6862-408: The screen in early cinema, specifically with Sherlock Holmes such as Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900). Gary Don Rhodes wrote that the large volume of detective films released in the 1910s either owed to Sherlock Holmes but that contemporary reviews such as that of Moving Picture World in 1911 bemoaned the lack of a proper Sherlock Holmes adaptation in "Doctor Doyle's finished style." By 1915,

6956-418: The sole suspect, but refused to charge him because of critical gaps in evidence. The parents opposed the closure report, calling CBI's suspicion of Rajesh Talwar as baseless. Subsequently, a special CBI court rejected the CBI's claim that there was not enough evidence, and ordered proceedings against the Talwars. In November 2013, the parents were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment , amid criticism that

7050-471: The spot. When the couple arrived at the home, Nupur didn't enter the house: she sat in the car with Aarushi's ashes, as she considered it inauspicious to take the ashes inside. Rajesh went upstairs to identify the body. He told the police that he couldn't be sure that the body was that of Hemraj, due to the injuries and the decomposition . Later, a friend of Hemraj identified the body as his. Rajesh and Nupur later resumed their journey to Haridwar and returned

7144-464: The terrace in order to hide it. However, in June 2008, CBI's UV Light testing team reported that it didn't find Hemraj's bloodstains anywhere except the terrace. So, unless the killer cleaned up the original murder spot, Hemraj seems to have been killed on the terrace. The blood found on the staircase leading to the terrace on 17 May might have come from the mattress that the cleaners were trying to dump on

7238-416: The terrace. A double-bed cover was draped upon the iron grill that separated the Talwars' terrace from the neighbouring terrace. The investigators found a smudged blood-stained palm print on the terrace wall. The blood was later identified as that of Hemraj, but the print could not be identified. The police also photographed a blood-stained shoe print on the terrace; the shoe size was 8 or 9. According to

7332-477: The time the police arrived, there were 15 people in the living room and 5-6 people in the Talwars' bedroom; only Aarushi's room was vacant. The crime scene had been "completely trampled upon". The story of a murder in an affluent neighbourhood also attracted many mediapersons, who gathered around the house by 8 am. On 16 May, the missing servant Hemraj was the prime suspect. In his police complaint, Rajesh blamed Hemraj for his daughter's murder. He repeatedly told

7426-441: The trial, Sachin tells Aarti that he wants a divorce, and afterwards he books into a hotel with Brinda. Paraskar hunts down Riyaz, who has been hiding since the murder. During the interrogation, Paraskar and Riyaz are attacked and Riyaz is later found dead. Paraskar also discovers missing servant Chetan's dead body concealed within the floorboards of the Mahajan house, adding to the mystery. Soon after, Chetan's relative Sudhakar Mishra

7520-542: The victims after finding them in an "objectionable" position, or because Rajesh's alleged extra-marital affair had led to his blackmail by Hemraj and a confrontation with Aarushi. The Talwars' family and friends accused the police of framing the Talwars in order to cover up the botched-up investigation. The case was then transferred to the CBI , which exonerated the parents and suspected the Talwars' assistant Krishna Thadarai and two domestic servants—Rajkumar and Vijay Mandal. Based on

7614-447: The whereabouts of Hemraj. When Bharati said that she had no idea, Nupur remarked that Hemraj must have gone outside to fetch milk and must have locked the door from outside. She asked Bharati to wait outside until Hemraj returned. Bharati did not want to wait and asked Nupur to throw the duplicate keys. Nupur asked her to go downstairs so that she could throw the keys to her from the balcony . Nupur then called Hemraj's mobile phone, but

7708-427: The whitish discharge is normal in 13- and 14-year-old girls after the beginning of a menstrual cycle . The bed sheet had a wet circular mark below her pelvic area, which was not urine. There was no such wet patch on her pyjamas , which were untied; no urine or any other bodily fluid was found on her underwear either. The lower garments of Aarushi appeared to have been pulled up or pulled down, as her buttock cleavage

7802-505: Was "well-served" by 1960s and 70s film adaptations like The Alphabet Murders (1965), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Death on the Nile (1978), the decades following it left mystery adaptations to be made for television as the "default home of sumptuous Golden Age adaptations" Eric Sandberg ( Crime Fiction Studies ) stated that while film streaming services were predominantly dominated by iterations of Nordic noir and police procedurals , there have been works inspired

7896-439: Was being bribed by Aarti. As Aarti is being arrested, she smirks at a distraught Remy, happy with the fact that she has killed her child and lover. It was initially reported that Gupta loosely based the film's story on the 2008 Noida double murder case and he was quoted as stating that "The case gives a classic premise for an Agatha Christie kind of murder mystery, which would keep the audience guessing and hooked. Plus, there's

7990-424: Was drunk. Ayesha's mother, Dr. Aarti returns from Pune and is shocked by the news. Remy tells the police that the family's other servant, Chetan, who has a criminal record, has also been missing since Ayesha's murder. It is also revealed that Ayesha was pregnant and had a boyfriend named Riyaz. Evidence from the early stages of the investigation lead the detectives to believe that Dr. Sachin is the prime suspect, and he

8084-527: Was empty. He also found three bottles: Kingfisher beer , a Sprite and Sula whisky. Later, DNA of Hemraj was found on the Kingfisher bottle, although according to CBI's investigators, he was a teetotaler . Gautam also visited the servant's toilet where he "found urine of more than one person". According to the statement, he also saw a depression on Hemraj's mattress pointing to the presence of three people in his room. However, in 2012, Gautam told

8178-511: Was identical to the dimensions of the injuries found on the bodies. Dr. Sunil Dohre testified that the weapon used for the U/V-shaped injuries could possibly be a golf club. The defence argued that the CBI officers had drawn the words "golf club" from Dohre's mouth. Talwars' lawyer stated that Aarushi had had a hairline fracture , and produced the forensic expert Dr. RK Sharma, who told the court that this fracture could not have been caused by

8272-431: Was missing at the time, and was considered the main suspect. The next day, Hemraj's partially decomposed body was discovered on the terrace. The police were heavily criticized for failing to secure the crime scene immediately. After ruling out former domestic servants of the family, the police treated Aarushi's parents—Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nupur Talwar—as the prime suspects. The police suspected that Rajesh had murdered

8366-399: Was normal. In response, the doctor stated that his conclusion was not based on any medical authority, but on experiences from his own married life. On 1 July 2008, the first CBI team recorded a statement by KK Gautam, describing Hemraj's room as he found it on 17 May. According to this statement, Gautam saw three glasses, two of which had some quantity of liquor in them, while the third one

8460-528: Was not closed, and presented Rajesh's driver Umesh Sharma as a witness, who stated that this outermost door could be opened by pushing it hard. The key to the terrace door was never found. According to the Talwars, this key was present in Hemraj's bunch of keys, which went missing after the murders. The door to Aarushi's room (and the main door of the house) would lock automatically when shut. Aarushi's door could either be opened from inside, or from outside with

8554-501: Was settled through the Bombay high court, where it was decided that one member of the Talwar family would screen the film but would not disclose to any outlet how the film ended. After the screening an advocate for the Talwar family filed a request for a stay of the film's release, stating that although the censor board had deemed that the film and the murder case were not similar that there were "over 100 similarities" that were not listed on

8648-486: Was taken for post-mortem around 8:30 am by two Uttar Pradesh police constables . Rajesh's brother Dinesh Talwar, his driver Umesh Sharma and his childhood friend Ajay Chadha accompanied the constables. Around 1 pm, the body was brought home and placed on ice slabs in the living room. It was taken for cremation at the Antim Niwas crematorium around 4 pm. According to the Talwars, who were later accused of being in

8742-434: Was visible and the whitish discharge was confined to the vagina, when it should have spread to the "entire area". Dr. Dohre stated that he had not mentioned these observations in his original report, because these were his "subjective findings", and because "the findings were non-specific and were very strange". He added the wide vaginal opening found on Aarushi's body could have resulted only when someone manipulated it while

8836-400: Was visible. CBI suspected that her pelvic area was swabbed clean, and the pyjamas were pulled up afterwards. Later in 2012, Dr. Dohre stated that Aarushi's private parts were "extraordinarily dilated", although there were no signs of rape. He stated that her hymen was ruptured and that it had an old tear. He also stated that her vaginal orifice was "unduly large", the mouth of her cervix

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