Family and friends remember Aarushi on her second death anniversary

NEW DELHI - “Love u Aarushi” — said the huge posters at the entrance of Chinmaya Mission where family and friends gathered Sunday to remember the girl who was full of life but was brutally killed two years ago in mysterious circumstances.

Inside, two huge smiling photographs of Aarushi were kept at the dais, as candles flickered and showed the once happy teenaged girl, the daughter of dentist parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.

As hymns and soft prayers rented the air, friends and family recalled the girl who touched their lives.

Aarushi was found murdered mysteriously in their Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida May 16, 2008. The family’s domestic help, Hemraj, who was initially suspected for the murder, was found killed on their terrace a day later.

At the prayer meet, her parents kept their heads lowered and hands folded and did not speak. It was left for Rajesh’s brother Dinesh Talwar to announce that the family has started a society in the name of Aarushi to reach out to the disadvantaged children.

“Arushi’s family has started a society called Arushi’s legacy. Arushi was the light of their lives and they had dreams for her. Through this society they want to see the dreams of other less fortunate children to be realised,” Dinesh Talwar, a medical practitioner like his brother, told the packed auditorium.

He said they had recently organised a medical camp in a deprived area of the national capital. He did not name the area.

Describing Aarushi as an “angel,” her close friend and classmate Rajeshwari said: “She will always be my best friend.”

“She is here and looking at us like an angle. We should all stand up for her now to seek justice for her,” said Rajeshwari, who studied in the same class in DPS Noida.

As the ceremony concluded and people spilled out, both Rajesh and Nupur stood at the gate, thanking everyone for attending the prayer meet and hugging Aarushi’s close friends.

Both of them also kept the media at bay. Relatives stood out side the gate to stop the electronic media and cameras from intruding into the grief of the family, which has seen the wost time since the murder of their only daughter that still continue to remain an unsolved mystery.

It was a sensational murder that shocked the country and dominated media headlines and drawing room conversations for weeks.

For the family, the arrest of Rajesh, who was arrested and kept behind bars for 50 days in connection with the crimes and was later let off because of lack of evidence against him, continue to haunt them. After Rajesh Talwar was let off, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the case, arrested his medical assistant Krishna and two other domestic helps in the neighbourhood Raj Kumar and Vijay Mandal.

All of them were freed after a period of detention while the CBI continues to hunt for material evidence.