Who killed Aarushi Talwar?

The tragic Arushi murder was most happening event to hit our sleepy colony for years.

All the major India news networks covered this tragic event. Therefore, we had EEZEE TV,/VD TV, RATS News, Till Today (Hindi channel), and NBI dead.moc were all there, blocking our roads and occupying our parking spaces. Their media vans were everywhere, with their satellite dishes fouling the branches and their Indica's strutting around with "PRESS" importantly stuck on their backsides.

There was Breaking News, 'Father kills daughter', 'Father and mother kill daughter', 'Mother kills daughter' and 'Someone kills Aarushi' and एक्सक्लूसिव ब्रेकिंग न्यूज़ , ' आरुशी को किसने मारा', 'आरुशी का हत्यारा कौन' एंड 'पापा ने आरुशी को मारा', all with the background score of some old Hindi movie। This event spawned programs titled ' सनसनी , turned TV reporters into detectives and TV anchors into idiots.

Our neighbors were on TV, with even a 'Social Worker' from the colony directing a vituperative blast on Dr. Rajesh Talwar 'live from Bangalore'. He had probably extracted the wrong tooth!

This event gave a new lease of life to retired police officials and out-of-work psychologists; as they propounded their own half-baked theories to a receptive audience. Each day the theories got more outlandish, exceeding only by the contradictory statements of the police. As Dharmender said in Sholay 'Isme action hain, drama hain, tragedy hain'

It also gave the proverbial minute of fame to a few Senior UP police officials, as they dissected the character of the deceased girl and her family. Thankfully, Mayawati had them transferred and they are now directing bullock carts in some remote village. And we can't really blame the police for bungling up… by and large poorly trained, even more poorly paid, where is the motivation?

However, what do we do about the reputed,upright TV channels…with their educated, smart but mindless anchors and asinine reporters? Should they be allowed to get away scot-free after such character assassination? One news channel first got an SMS poll 'who killed Aarushi'. I understand that they make a lot of money on such polls. Then after the father was released, they got out another poll 'Was the media fair to the Talwars'? Even someone as stupid as them can answer this!

Another picture that flashes through my mind is of reporters of news channels weeping outside the Talwars residence. For a moment, I thought they were sharing the Talwars grief. No, not to be, the reason -- Nupur Talwar gave an exclusive interview to only one news channels, effectively robbing them out of breaking news!

So, who killed Aarushi Talwar?

As of a few days the IBC, India's Premier Investigative agency (God help us!) has conceded that Dr. Rajesh Talwar has not killed his daughter. As far as I am concerned their chief contribution has been cleaning the drains in the colony in an effort to locate the murder weapon...this was something the NOIDA authority had not done for years!

We may never know who killed Aarushi…but one thing is sure... the media has surely killed her spirit and her reputation, as well as that of her family and friends.

PS In my own small way, I tried to help Aarushi's cause trying to run over a cameraman as he strolled across the road, mike in hand. However, he deftly got out of the way. Guess he is used to this!