New Delhi, July 11: The missing mobile of murdered servant Hemraj had first misled investigators and then provided them with a clue to Aarushi Talwar’s likely killer, the CBI said today.

When the schoolgirl’s dentist parents failed to find Hemraj at their home on the morning of May 16 — hours after he and their 15-year-daughter had been murdered — father Rajesh Talwar had made a call to the servant’s number. The call was disconnected.

“During the investigations, it was found that the mobile was then somewhere in Jal Vayu Vihar (where the Talwars live). That gave rise to the initial suspicions about the couple’s involvement,” CBI joint director Arun Kumar told reporters today.

Rajesh was arrested by Noida police on May 23 and even his wife Nupur was repeatedly questioned and then put through lie tests.

However, after the polygraph tests on the couple indicated “no deception”, suspicion was deflected to Rajesh’s compounder Krishna, who too lived in the same colony.

“It was Krishna who had propagated the stories about honour killing and the proximity between Aarushi and Hemraj to the Noida police. Besides, he had been publicly scolded by Talwar in his clinic over some professional matter (and so may have borne him a grudge),” Kumar said.

Krishna had allegedly suggested to the police that Rajesh may have surprised Hemraj, 45, and Aarushi during a moment of intimacy and killed them in a fit of rage — or in cold blood to protect the “family honour”.

A series of psychological and other tests done on the compounder showed that he was deceiving his interrogators, and revealed his aggressive tendencies, manipulative behaviour and disloyal character, Kumar said.

On the other hand, the lie tests on the Talwars absolved them, the officer added. The first polygraph test on either was “inconclusive”, but the subsequent ones on each detected “no deception”.

With nothing amiss found in their polygraph tests, the Talwars were not subjected to the advanced tests like narco-analysis and brain-mapping, Kumar explained.

He described the CBI’s forensic findings: “Most of the bloodstains on the (Talwars’) terrace came from the AB group, which was Hemraj’s blood group. In Aarushi’s room, while most of the bloodstains were B positive (her blood group), there was one AB group stain found on her pillow, indicating it had been carried to her room later.”

The agency is waiting for a DNA test report on fingerprints. “As of now, what we have is based on forensic tests and narco-analysis. We still have to get corroborative evidence,” Kumar said.