Murder police 'should be changed'

School girl Arushi Talwar was found dead at her home

The chief minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has called on national police to take over the investigation of the murder of a schoolgirl.

Ms Mayawati made the recommendation following criticism from the press and women's groups that the state police had botched the investigation.

Arushi Talwar, 14 and her family servant Hemraj were found dead on 16 May at her house in Noida, near Delhi.

Last week, police arrested her father Dr Rajesh Talwar, a well known dentist.

Dr Talwar and his wife Nupur - also a dentist - have consistently said they are innocent.

The murders have generated huge media and public interest with questions being raised about how the Noida police have been handling the case.

'No faith'

"I have come to know through media reports that the Talwar family has lost faith in the Uttar Pradesh police," Ms Mayawati told a press conference televised live on some private news channels.

"I am sending a letter to the federal home ministry recommending that the inquiry is handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)," she said.

The decision to hand over the case to the CBI follows severe criticism of the Noida police officers for some of the statements they have made in the past week.

Addressing a press conference on 23 May, senior state police officer Gurdarshan Singh said Arushi was killed because she objected to her father's extra-martial relationship with a fellow dentist.

Dr Rajesh Talwar maintains he is innocent

At the same press conference, Mr Singh suggested that the teenager was killed because Dr Talwar did not like her close relationship with the servant.

Dr Nupur Talwar has strongly rejected the allegations and said the police were trying to frame her husband.

Police initially suspected the Nepalese servant of killing the girl and issued his picture to the public saying he was wanted for questioning.

But they soon discovered that he too had been killed, at about the same time as the girl.

The bodies of the two bore similar injury marks and police said the murders were carried out with great precision.

The arrest of Dr Rajesh Talwar followed intensive questioning by the police.

"The prime accused is Dr Rajesh Talwar... On the basis of investigation by the police in Noida he has been arrested but other details will come out after further investigation," a police spokesman said.

This is not the first time that Noida has been in the news for a high-profile crime.

Nearly two years ago more than 30 people, many of them young children, were killed and their body parts found in a drain at the back of a house.