Cops look for clues in Arushi's Orkut profile

ORKUTTING: The police is measuring Arushi’s Orkut profile and her e-mail according to their moral scales.

    

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New Delhi: The Noida police may have completely misconstrued the contents of Arushi's emails and web chats and arrived at a dramatically different conclusion, all thanks to a disconnect with the ways of Generation Y.

The language of the e-mail sent by Arushi suggests a potential motive, says the Noida police investigating the Arushi Talwar murder case. The e-mail was an exchange between the murdered teenager and her parents that has convinced the police that relations between Arushi and her parents were strained.

Although that that may be the police interpretation, but for a majority of upper middle class families, the SMS and mail exchange is typical of their world.

Arushi's Orkut profile and her description about her likes and dislikes seem to be perfectly regular and normal for most teenagers.

“I have this Orkut page and I have about 90 friends. The conversations on Orkut are nothing particular. They are generally about how your day is spent or about teachers and school, about going out,” says Class XII student, Ashmita Guha.

“We usually chat about what’s happening in each others lives or when we plan to meet up,” says Class XII student, Rhibhya Sarma.

The police is measuring Arushi’s Orkut profile and her e-mail according to their moral scales, which are totally different to what is happening in most middle class homes.

A majority of the policemen are from small town families, with little or no experience of the virtual world. For them, a girl like Arushi chatting with three different boys has been enough to suggest a character flaw.

“The police should not jump to these hasty conclusions. They should gather as much evidence as possible. Till conclusive evidence is found, they should keep quiet,” says former Delhi Police Commissioner, Ved Marwah.

For the police, the emotional SMS and mail exchanges are enough reason to ascribe motive in this case.

Psychologist Dr Sonya Mehta says that after going through the content of the SMSs and e-mails, she thinks Arushi was a totally normal teenager.

“She was having normal conversations with some friends who happened to be boys. Some of these hint at romances or crushes, which is a normal teenager reaction. There’s nothing that seems illicit or in anyway hints at what Delhi cops are hinting at a compromised character,” says Sonya Mehta.

“The e-mail is dated an year ago. It was Sunday, April 8th, 2007. It is about a movie that Arushi wanted to go for with her friends alone,” says Arushi's mother Nupur Talwar.

It is because the gap between the cops and the Gen Y that the investigations into the Arushi case have become even more complicated.