Rajesh Talwar left bleeding by person who attacked Rathore

Snehesh Alex Philip

Ghaziabad, Jan 25 (PTI) Dentist Rajesh Talwar, father ofslain teenager Aarushi, was today attacked and injured outsidea court here by the same man who had stabbed former HaryanaDGP SPS Rathore, a convict in the Ruchika molestation case.

54-year-old Talwar, was rushed to a hospital by hislawyers after he was left profusely bleeding in the attack byUtsav Sharma, a graduate of National Institute of Design(Ahmedabad), and doctors later described his condition asstable.

Sharma, 30, a resident of Varanasi, who had come here fromDelhi, took Talwar by surprise as he came out of the courtafter filing a petition challenging the CBI''s closure reportin the Aarushi-Hemraj twin murder case.

Sharma, who was nabbed after the incident, slashedTalwar''s face and hands with a cleaver, leaving him bleeding,Senior Superintendent of Police (Ghaziabad), Raghuvir Lal,said. He has been arrested under section 307 IPC (attempt tomurder).

Talwar, who was initially rushed to nearby SarvodayaHospital by his lawyers, was later shifted to Delhi''s ApolloHospital where he underwent surgery.

"His condition is stable. He has undergone a surgery inthe right temporal region of the face and in the hands as theyhad deep cuts. Two arteries in the forehead were cut badly andthat is why he bled too much. He has undergone a plasticsurgery of the face," a senior doctor said.

"He (Sharma) is the same person who had attacked Rathoreoutside a Panchkula court in February last year," Lal said.

Rathore was stabbed by Sharma, who was then a student inNID, with a pen knife, injuring him in the cheek as he cameout of the court.

In a similar modus operandi, police said, Sharma attackedTalwar with a cleaver as he came out of the court and waswalking towards towards the lawyers'' chambers.

Lal said Sharma, who was sipping tea at a kiosk, suddenlytook out a cleaver, used for chopping meat, from his bag andslashed the right side of Talwar''s face. He attacked him againslashing him palms, he said.

The lawyer accompanying Talwar and his family memberspounced on Sharma amidst commotion and shouting by nearbyshopkeepers and bystanders.

Sharma was slapped and punched by some lawyers presentnearby before he was whisked away into a lockup in the courtpremises.

Over 150 lawyers, who had assembled there, shoutedslogans against police.

Some of the lawyers vented their anger on media personnelpresent there and even roughed up a few journalists andsmashed a video camera and the windscreens of vans belongingto two leading news channels.

Following the incident, special CBI court judge PreetiSingh adjourned the proceedings in the case till February 8.

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Sharma said during his interrogation that he was upset over the slow progress in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case andhis intention was only to injure Rajesh, police sources said.

Giving details of the attacker, Lal said, "Sharma had donea PG in animation in film designing from NID and had gone toDelhi to take part in the International India Art Summit inPragati Maidan."

He had bought a cleaver from Chandni Chowk in Delhi for Rs250 and was monitoring the case through the TV and newspapers,Lal said.

Police sources said he wanted to also garner mediapublicity.

Rebecca John, one of the counsel for Talwar, said it wasunfortunate that court premises had become a ground for suchincidents.

"A citizen has an absolute and complete right to appearbefore the court and get his side of the story across," shesaid.

Earlier, Talwar through his main counsel Satish Tamta, hadfiled an 86-page protest petition against the CBI''s closurereport and sought further probe. After Talwar''s petition, theCBI had asked for time till 12 PM to respond to it. The courtadjourned the hearing after the incident.

14-year-old Aarushi was found murdered at her residence in2008. The body of Talwar family domestic help Hemraj was foundin the terrace of the house later.