September 10, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 09, 1429

NEW DELHI, Sept 9: India’s top investigating agency on Tuesday sought Nepal’s help to solve the murder of a schoolgirl which has transfixed the nation since the crime was committed four months ago.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also offered a $2,400 reward for clues into the May 16 slaying of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and her servant Hemraj in New Delhi’s wealthy Noida suburb.

“The weapon of offence and mobile telephones of the two victims have not yet been recovered and so we have sent a letter of request to the Nepalese authorities,” CBI deputy inspector-general Neeraja Gotru told reporters.

The CBI turned to Kathmandu because two of the three key suspects in custody were Nepalese, she added.

The CBI, which took over the case in June, soon ruled out Aarushi’s father, Rajesh Talwar, as a suspect. Talwar, a dentist, had earlier been arrested by Noida police on charges of murdering his daughter and their domestic helper.

CBI instead arrested Talwar’s clinic assistant, Krishna, who uses one name, and two of his friends but Gotru conceded the agency still did not have enough evidence to press charges against the three.

She said the CBI wanted to question some people in Nepal and also track the origin of the missing knife used in the killings because it appeared to be a traditional Nepalese dagger.—AFP