After 16 months, Arushi's cell found – Yahoo! India News

Sixteen months after Arushi Talwar was found murdered in her Noida flat, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Monday said it has found the teenager's mobile phone.

The phone, officers said, was traced to a bank guard in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, two days ago. The man, identified as Ram Phool, has been arrested and is being questioned, a Crime Branch official said.

Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat confirmed: “Arushi's mobile phone has been recovered and it has been handed over to the CBI.”

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the investigations from Noida Police last June, had been unable to trace it for all these months. The agency's joint-director Arun Kumar, who was leading the probe till recently when it was handed over to a new CBI team, had in fact said in a press conference on July 11 last year that the cellphones of Arushi and the family's household help Hemraj had been “destroyed”.

Kumar had made the statement after arresting Rajkumar and Krishna, employed as helps in the area.

Crime Branch officials today said if it is proved that the phone found is Arushi's, it would provide important clues about the murder. It could help the investigators ascertain the identity of those who got calls from the teenager the day she was murdered.

Arushi was found murdered on May 16 last year; Hemraj's body was discovered on the building's terrace the next day.

Phone 'swept' away?Crime Branch sources today said a sweeper from Noida had found the phone (a black Nokia N72 model, with SIM number 9910520630) from Arushi's father Dr Rajesh Talwar's house after the murders. She reportedly gave it to her brother Ram Phool, who is based in Bulandshahr.

“Her brother was using it off and on,” a source said. The police suspect he has been using it since this February and switched it off immediately after using it each time, according to the source.

The source in the Crime Branch said this time the phone was switched on two days ago. “A team of Special Operations Squad (SOS) of Delhi Police immediately went to Bulandshahr and nabbed the man,” the official said. “He is being questioned.”

Besides Arushi's mobile, CBI had been unable to trace Hemraj's cellphone as well. The agency had sent a request to Nepal to trace the two phones � Hemraj came from the neighbouring country � but it did not yield any result.

CBI's announcement of a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information about the mobile phones on September 9 last year also proved futile.

Interestingly, Crime Branch officials had last year tried to investigate the case on their own � a team had gone to the Noida spot � but pulled back after Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal reportedly took objection.

Late Monday evening, Arushi's father Dr Rajesh Talwar said, “I am hopeful that there will be something positive in the case now. I will probably speak to CBI officers tomorrow.”

Mobile recovery: some questions* Crime Branch sources say Arushi's mobile probably came to Bulandshahar through several hands. Why was CBI unable to find it? * If it was active, even off and on, since February, why did the service provider not inform CBI?

Neeraj Chauhan

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