NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was on Tuesday granted two days' custody of dentist Rajesh Talwar, a suspect in the murders of his daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, even as a team of the agency left for Haridwar to further its probe into the Noida double murder.
The CBI had on Monday sought Talwar's custody for seven days but the court had permitted only a day's remand.
On Tuesday, a CBI team asked Judge Sapna Mishra of the special CBI court in Ghaziabad to extend Talwar's custody since one day was insufficient to interrogate him. The judge gave the bureau two more days, sources said.
After getting custody of Talwar, the CBI took him to his residence at Jalvayu Vihar in Noida and conducted an extensive search.
"We visited the crime scene (Talwars' apartment) for further investigation," a CBI official said.
“Yesterday (Monday) Talwar was brought to the CBI headquarters in New Delhi where he was interrogated briefly. Though we have not booked him for the murder, we need to interrogate him more to corroborate his wife's statements about the sequence of events,” the official added.
Meanwhile, a six member CBI team was sent to Haridwar where Aarushi's last rites were performed. The Noida police had earlier taken Talwar to Haridwar hoping to recover the murder weapon.
Fourteen-year-old Aarushi was found dead in her room in the Jalvayu Vihar apartment with her throat slit May 16. The police initially named Hemraj the main accused but backtracked after his body was found on the terrace of the apartment a day later.
The police arrested Talwar May 23, accusing him of killing his daughter in a fit of rage as he objected to her closeness to Hemraj. The police had said at that time that he first killed Hemraj and then his daughter.
The case was handed over to the CBI on Sunday after large-scale condemnation of the way the Noida police had bad-mouthed Aarushi and her father. It had also changed the investigating officer thrice in less than a fortnight.
The CBI has also hinted at the loopholes in the Noida police investigation that has resulted in destruction of evidence and tampering with it.
“The room in which Aarushi was killed was not even sealed. In fact the police allowed the family and relatives to perform prayers in the room,” the official said.
So far, the CBI has interrogated five people, including Talwar.
Immediately after taking up the case, the CBI questioned Aarushi's mother Nupur Talwar, who was among the four persons present in the apartment when the incident happened.
The CBI sleuths also questioned Anita Durrani. The Durranis, also a dentist couple like the Talwars, are their business partners.
Anita Durrani has earlier rubbnished Noida police allegations that she was romantically linked with Rajesh Talwar.
The CBI has also interrogated the Talwars' driver Umesh Sharma. He claims to have seen Aarushi having dinner with her family in their apartment on the night of May 15. Her body was discovered the next morning.
Also questioned was the Talwars' maid, who police said was the first to come into the apartment on May 16 after which Aarushi's body was discovered.
