Cid: The Sixth Case

Note: This story is based on the author's fiction. It doesn't apply to any historical references or real-life incidents. A sequel to my previous story CID: The Fifth Case, it follows a non-linear narration structure unlike the previous part of this "CID Verse."

2021

COIMBATORE, TAMILNADU

Chandran was working as a head instructor at a driving school. His wife, Anjana, works as Tamil Nadu Transport's policy advisor. Their daughter, Raga Chandrika, was 21 years old. Chandrika has a twin brother, Ragul, and a younger brother, Sharan. The family lived very happily in Coimbatore.

They were very hard workers. Chandrika and her brother Ragul completed their Bachelor of Commerce degree in Computer Applications that year. Now she has decided to go to some other state and may stay there for a few days. She was planning to go to work.

Chandrika started to do research on the internet for that. At that time, in Mallapuram, she came up with the idea to become a teacher who teaches English. She also liked it very much. But Chandrika's parents don't like this idea. They were scared that their daughter was going to another district alone. To the extent that they couldn't even imagine for their daughter that something terrible might happen. Her parents' sub-conscious instinct started thinking like that.

Even if they were reluctant, because of their daughter's wish to go there, they agreed for her to go there. When Chandrika's travel to Hyderabad was confirmed a few days before she went there, her older brother Ragul asked her to be safe as soon as she went there.

Ragul asked Chandrika, "Hey Chandrika. Do you know what happened to the girl called Priyanka Reddy? She was just like you. She wanted to travel the world. And wanted to go to many places. Once, she visited Hyderabad. That girl's friend was working in a nightclub in Secundarabad. Priyanka often went to that nightclub to see her. A rich person came there and took the 21-year-old Priyanka on a private date. But that was the last time everyone saw that girl alive. The girl who disappeared like that, exactly seven months later, was found in a cave area where there is no human traffic. Her body, arms, and legs were found in a cut state. So you have to be careful, sister."

Ragul said this true incident as a warning to his sister. Hearing all this, Chandrika leaves for Hyderabad.

24 MAY 2021

HYDERABAD

Chandrika landed in Hyderabad on May 24, 2021. She joined as an English teacher at an institute. Two teachers who are working at that institute are staying in the same apartment at Chandrika's. They came into contact.

Chandrika started doing her job with love, and she also started liking Hyderabad very much. She even thought of staying there permanently. She felt that Hyderabad was even safer than Coimbatore.

MAY 27, 2023

After two years, Chandrika's parents, Ragul and Sharan, come to Hyderabad. Because it's Chandrika and Ragul's birthdays that month. They came to celebrate her birthday there. All of them explored Chandrika's favourite locations. All of them wandered everywhere.

In a big luxury bar, they ate dinner and celebrated the birthday. It was a very special experience for them. But it was the last day, and they were happy with Chandrika. They were with her the whole day. However, her behaviour with strangers and the trust she maintained with them made her father feel uncomfortable.

Something was not right, and there was some instinct when she went to Hyderabad. Chandran thought that her daughter should trust strangers the most and advised her not to trust everyone, but she didn't listen to her.

Chandrika is an English teacher. She thought it might be because of her job, and she also started loving her job. During the summer, she and her boyfriend, Muhammad Afsal, decided to go on a world trip. They decided to save money for it.

Saving Chandrika's salary and going on a world trip with her boyfriend for the next year, and then returning to Coimbatore to continue her studies. For her, becoming a doctor was her plan.

On June 1, 2023, she went outside early in the morning. Her flatmates noticed that she didn't return during the night. Chandrika has not gone anywhere alone and has not stayed anywhere alone at night. The next morning, from her school, they called Chandrika's father and informed him that she hadn't come to school for two days. They added, "She didn't even inform me to leave."

Sensing that there was something wrong, Chandrika's father and Ragul lodged a formal police complaint.

ACP Pramoth, a police officer under the CID crime branch, investigated the roommates of Chandrika about her whereabouts before five days. After the investigation, he goes to a bar and investigates the owner, who saw her alive when she was spending time with her friends in the bar.

The bar owner said, "Chandrika won't drink too much, sir. She will just be with her friends and watch football or spend time with them. She will correctly move out on time. On that day also, she took her bike and went on time."

After a detailed investigation, Pramoth finds out that someone followed Chandrika. When Chandrika came to the flat, she was with her roommates.

A FEW DAYS BACK

At that time, she heard a knock on the door. Outside, there stood a young man.

She asked him, "Who are you? What do you want?"

"I wanted to get private English classes from you, ma'am."

When she heard that, she allowed that man inside the flat. The man started talking to Chandrika. When he was talking to her, he started drawing her. He also included his phone number on that paper. He also wrote his address on the backside of the paper.

Chandrika accepted to teach English lessons for that man. She felt uncomfortable with that man. But for the sake of the upcoming tour plan and because the extra amount might be useful, she accepted it. And she acted very smartly.

Though that man wrote his address on the paper, Chandrika thought of her safety. She decided to take private English classes in a public place.

PRESENT

At present, Pramoth looks at the CCTV footage of the coffee shop with the help of his girlfriend Nikitha, who's a forensic officer. In the CCTV footage, Chandrika entered while going for her private lecture.

"Sir. Early in the morning, she went to Secundarabad from her flat. They went to the coffee shop near that man's apartment. Someone was with this girl and stayed there for some time. She was uncomfortable with him and was adjusting her hair frequently." The operator said to Pramoth:

When the video was re-played, Nikitha said, "Pramoth. Did you note this point? Chandrika kept on touching her hair and face."

"It might even be a self-seeking behaviour, right?" asked Pramoth.

"How did you come to such a conclusion?"

"Because she might be nervous at that time."

Following this, they asked the shopkeeper about their whereabouts, to which he replied, "I don't know, sir. After some time, both of them went outside the coffee shop and then went on a taxi."

THAT DAY

After the English class in the coffee shop, Chandrika decided to get her payment and move out. The man looked at his pocket and said that he forgot the money and that it was in his apartment.

He asked her to come out and get it from there. Both of them go to the man's apartment in a taxi. After reaching the apartment, Chandrika got out of the taxi. She asked the taxi driver, "To wait for sometime as she will return in a few minutes."

PRESENT

At present, Pramoth has met the taxi driver with the help of the coffee shop owner. He said, "Sir. Chandrika asked me to wait for some time. But she never came back. It was her final words that she talked to me."

"Did you ask anyone in the apartment about her?"

"No sir. I waited for seven minutes. But since Chandrika didn't come, I got away from there."

Chandrika, who went out that morning, didn't return till the night. So her roommates started to panic. They reported it to the police, and the next day, Pramoth inquired about her roommates.

One of her roommates told her about that unknown young man and the drawing he had drawn for Pramoth when he was investigating the taxi driver. The person's name, Konidela Adhithya Krishnaswamy, was written there. They saw the address of that person written there.

The girls further said that Chandrika had gone to teach English classes at a coffee shop to that man.

JUNE 3, 2023

On the next day, Pramoth went to the address mentioned in the drawing by 5:30 PM in the evening. He didn't have any valid reason to knock on Adhithya's door. As per Indian rules, no one should knock on someone's door without a valid reason. So they waited at the front door of the apartment.

For that man to come outside, when they were waiting, even though all the lights were off, there was movement inside. Pramoth thought that Chandrika was definitely being held there. When the duo were waiting, a report came from CID that already a case of robbery and rape had been filed against Adhithya.

They sent Nikitha and some more police officers for backup with the forensic and medical teams. After three hours since the police officers arrived, the door was knocked. Adhithya opened the apartment door. He put a bag on his back and asked, "What do you want?"

Nikitha replied, "We came to look for a girl named Raga Chandrika." The next second, Adhithya started running away from there. Nikitha, who was standing there, tried to grab his backpack. But he started running away despite that, slashing her abdomen and left hand with his mini-knife.

The other police officers started running after him. Though he was running within arm's reach, he suddenly started running down the fire exit stairs very fast. He ran away from the police, who were chasing after him. As soon as he came down, the police, who were standing there, saw him and started chasing.

But Adhithya had an excellent physique. He will cycle for 25 km daily. So, running from the police in a zigzag way, he escaped from the police's eyes and hid in the blink of an eye.

"Hey Nikitha. Are you okay?" asked Pramoth. He was in tears and took her to the hospital at the nick of time, where the doctors saved her by giving her proper treatment.

A FEW MONTHS BACK

28-year-old Adhithya didn't do it all of a sudden. He had followed Chandrika for more than a month. In Secundarabad town, he was living alone in a three-bedroom apartment bought by his parents.

His parents are very rich and have very good jobs. His father, Krishnaswamy, was a brain surgeon, and his mother, Sheela, is a dentist. Because of his parents' compulsion, in 2014 he graduated in horticulture at Warrangal University. Horticulture is a part of agriculture. After graduation, he didn't go for any work related to that.

From 2014 to 2017, he lived by spending the money given to him by his parents every month.

When the police investigated his college friends, they said, "When he was studying in college, he would always be alone, sir. He is a loner. He watched a lot of violent animation and violent movies, sir."

"His behaviour has been very strange in these few years, sir." Another friend of Adhithya said to Rishi:

"How do you say this?"

"In 2015, Adhithya tried to steal from the girl who was walking on the street, sir. He also tried to misbehave. This case came to court, and his parents settled the case by giving money to the girl. He had a girlfriend named Rashmika sir."

"What did she tell me about him?" asked Pramoth.

The friends replied, "Sir. Their relationship was good. But he was always in the gym to maintain his physique. He never missed the 25 km of cycling. In 2017, some changes began to happen inside him. He was attracted by random strangers."

JUNE 3, 2023

The English teacher, Raga Chandrika, was followed by him for months. Adhithya first saw her on the street. When he was following her, he found that she was an English teacher and approached her with that. She went to his apartment, believing him.

PRESENT

At present, the police can't catch him after Adhithya runs away. Pramoth and the police started searching Chandrika's entire apartment after two days.

When Nikitha started searching inside, she saw Chandrika's belongings scattered everywhere in the apartment. However, Chandrika was not found anywhere. When a police officer went to the balcony of

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that apartment, the tub that should be in the bathroom was kept on the balcony.

The bathtub was filled with sand. Something was stretching out of that bathtub filled with sand. When he went near and saw that, a hand was stretched out of the tub filled with sand. When Pramoth and the police took out the sand, they found Chandrika's dead body in that bathtub. A decomposing agent is added to decompose her body quickly. Apart from that, seeds of some flowering plants were sprinkled in that sand. It was done to feed the seeds through Chandrika's body and grow them into plants.

Chandrika's mouth was tied with cloth, and her legs were tied with rope. The wounds in her body were very brutal, and a sign of torture for a long time was found by Nikitha.

JUNE 3, 2023

Adhithya knows martial arts very well, and Chandrika also knows martial arts very well. She had fought against him. But he injured her face with repeated punches.

When Adhithya punched, Chandrika fell down, and there were bruises on her body. Going near to her, Adhithya hurriedly removed her sari. After removing her sari, he tored away her bikini and skirts from her body. After taking off his dresses, he went near to Chandrika and brutally kissed her lips. Now he pushed her to the bed.

"No. Please don't do anything. Spare me. Please…" However, Adhithya raped her cruelly and rudely. Then he aggressively strangled her neck, and her neck bone was fractured because of that. Due to the suffocation, Chandrika eventually dies.

PRESENT

"Hey Pramoth. It's really strange," said Nikitha.

"Why?" 

"See. Chandrika's head was completely shaved by the killer. He put that shaved hair in a plastic cover and kept it." Upon hearing this, Pramoth stared at Nikitha in vexation for a few minutes.

JUNE 5, 2023

3:00 AM

Chandrika's parents received a phone call that no parent ever wants to hear in their life. Pramoth said that their daughter's dead body had been found. When Chandrika's parents heard this, they were broken and left for Coimbatore soon. As they couldn't stand it.

When Chandrika's father, Chandran, saw her body, he started crying as his daughter was tortured and killed. He asked Pramoth to find the killer who is responsible for this. He started crying for the police and for the people of Telangana.

Adhithya's wanted photo was immediately pasted all over Hyderabad. Within a few weeks, more than 30,000 posters were pasted all over Telangana. His photo was shown on all national and international news channels. It started to turn into Pramoth's most high-profile case. Adhithya becomes the most wanted criminal in India.

"Those who give a clue or information about him will be awarded Rs. six lakhs." Pramoth said through the media reporters More than 150 special police officers were working day and night just for this case. But days become weeks, and weeks become months, and months become years. But where Adhithya went, where he is, or what happened to him was not found.

No matter how much effort Pramoth and the police department put into the search, they never found out where Adhithya went or what happened to him.

"Adhithya went to a place that no one knew and where no one could find him and committed suicide. That's why we couldn't find his body," said Pramoth.

The investigation starts, and months go by. Even after six months, he was not found. The police decided that he would not be found again. 140 police officers who were working day and night in Chandrika's case, many of whom have been reduced from that case.

Meanwhile, Chandrika's brother Ragul and her family continued to find the killer responsible for their daughter's death. They started to fight with media support so that it would become a pressure point for the government, and the police officers would quickly work to find out about this case. Otherwise, they will forget about it. Hence, they started to protest.

In many places, a standing doll of Adhithya's face, with the doll wearing various dresses, created awareness amongst the people. Only then can someone find out just by looking at him. The media published his drawing of Chandrika with the permission of her family. In case he draws anyone again, they will be alert and inform Pramoth.

Those who inform others about him will get six lakh rupees. Now, the police department has even increased the reward. More than eight thousand people reported back that they saw him there, here, and here. Adhithya's parents also arranged a television interview and asked their son to surrender wherever he was, saying that it was their wish.

A message was given in video format through all news channels. Apart from that, they apologised for the mistake made by their son. They also apologised to Chandrika's family in front of the public through TV channels. Now, the parents are in a position to apologise for their son. Instead, if they had taught and punished him at the correct time and taught him good habits in life, this situation would not have come about.

On one side, Adhithya's parents apologised. On the other side, Pramoth and the police are looking for him.

Adhithya started living another life for him. When the police searched for him everywhere, he was travelling all over India. But no one can find him. He started hiding and living as the homeless people on India's streets do.

When he was like that, he saw his photos pasted everywhere. Then Adhithya started to realise that the thing he had done had turned into such a big thing.

From then on, Adhithya always covered his face with a cap and a glass. He didn't go to the area where there is a surveillance camera. He did not stay in one place for a long time and kept going from place to place.

Until the end, Adhithya didn't contact his family and friends. But when Pramoth intensified their search, he couldn't stay like this for too long.

"My identity should not be discovered by anyone." Adhithya thought of hiding his identity. He did something very horrible. To not be identified by the police, he used a box cutter and cut out the mole on the left cheek of his face. To change his lower lip, he took a pair of scissors and cut a part of it by himself.

When he tried to cut for the first time, he could not cut it and was throbbing in unbearable pain. He abandoned that plan. But in the next few days, he went to a public toilet while bearing the pain on a part of his lower lip. It didn't stop there. Adhithya also stitched his nose with a needle and thread. He changed his nose shape.

When the wounds were in Adhithya's face, he wandered out with a surgical mask. He travelled by bus, train, etc. and went to a famous Bhadrachalam temple in Telangana. He apologised for his mistake. After that, he prayed to Lord Ram that Raga Chandrika would come back to life somehow.

All that Adhithya did in that temple was read the Bhagavad Gita. His paranoia completely scared him into thinking he might be found by someone. He thought of changing his face completely. But this time, with the help of a plastic surgeon, it should be done.

Adhithya decided that plastic surgery was the correct option for that. Plastic surgery requires money. To earn money, he used the name and address of a person who had died and joined a construction company. For the next thirteen months, he worked there.

Adhithya used all the 1 million rupees he earned for the plastic surgery. He changed his nose fully. False names and false addresses were given at many clinics for the operation. He would never go to the clinic where he went before.

But it doesn't last for long. In Karnataka, Adhithya went to a clinic and requested surgery to change the shape of his mouth. The clinic is near central Bangalore. He had surgery to reconstruct his nose. The staff there got suspicious about him and reported him to the police.

They sent some of his photos to the police. That's when Pramoth and the police came to know that it was Adhithya. They learn that he had undergone plastic surgery for so many days. His new plastic surgery face was released to the public by the police team.

All the news channels published Adhithya's new photo. Comparing his old photo to his new photo, it looked like a new person. When Adhithya saw his new face on TV, his heart stopped.

"I suffered for many days only for this? But everything was gone in a second." Adhithya started crying. Immediately, he went to a shop to get a haircut. After that, he put on a dress like a hoody.

Now, Adhithya planned to escape to Andaman Island and arrived at Vizag port. The people there got suspicious of him and immediately filed a report with the local police. The local police came soon.

Two and a half years after Raga Chandrika's murder, Adhithya was caught.

In court, Adhithya said, "Yes. I raped and killed Raga Chandrika. But it was an accident. It was only when Chandrika screamed for help that I tied her mouth. I didn't think of killing her. I was just about to let her go after fulfilling my desire. But this unfortunate accident happened." He further added that "he did first aid to Raga Chandrika and also called an ambulance."

However, there's no evidence of him giving first aid or calling an ambulance. Everything Adhithya said in court was just to escape from this and get a very low punishment.

A FEW DAYS LATER

A few days later, Pramoth went to the construction company where Adhithya worked to gather information about him.

There, his co-workers from the construction company said to Pramoth, "Sir. He will not speak with anyone. He always reads books in his room or watches videos. He never removes his red cap and glasses in public. Even when all the workers in the company take a photo together, he will pose by hiding his face."

After gathering the fake names, fake details, and fake address given by Adhithya, Pramoth submitted them to their superior official.

CHANDRIKA'S FUNERAL

5:30 PM

During the funeral of Raga Chandrika, Pramoth apologised to her brother Ragul, her father Chandran, and the family for failing to save their daughter, to which Chandran replied, "It's okay, sir. At least we got to know the pains and sufferings of our daughter." Controlling his tears, he continued, "No girl should suffer like my daughter, sir." He held his hands, which made Pramoth emotional.

PRESENT

At present, Pramoth goes on a trip with Nikitha. There, he sat idle and sad.

While embracing Nikitha, she asked about Rishi Khanna, Archana, and Tejas.

"After Nivetha's case, all three got a voluntary transfer to Uttar Pradesh," said Nikitha. To replace them only, I was transferred to Hyderabad," said Pramoth.

"What's next?"

"Who knows what's there in the mind of our superior?" said Pramoth. He tightly hugged her while replying.

EPILOGUE AND CONTINUATION

Let's talk about red flags in general. It's like a warning sign. Like someone or something is not right. Let's see some of the red flags in this case.

First, Adhithya knocked on the door of Raga Chandrika's apartment. From this, it is known that he followed her for so many days.

The second thing is that they met for the first time. But Adhithya drew a drawing of Chandrika on white paper. It was definitely a red flag. Though she had an uncomfortable feeling about teaching him, Chandrika didn't know how to avoid it. That's why she met him in a public place, like a coffee shop.

But even then, Adhithya convinced Chandrika and took her to his apartment. Maybe she was uncomfortable going to the apartment. But Chandrika thought she would be safe and went to the apartment in a taxi.

Until Adhithya goes to his house and brings the money, Chandrika may even think of waiting at the door in front of the house. But everything changed completely.

So how do I avoid getting into this kind of situation? Does anyone pressure you to meet at their home? Or are they pressurising you to meet them at a private place? If you are not comfortable with it, don't do it.

In this case, by using money, Adhithya convinced Chandrika that the money to be paid was in the apartment and took her there. If you come across the same situation, remember one thing. The money that puts you in danger is less important than your life.

So, Readers. What do you think about this story? Kindly comment on your opinion without forgetting.

CID: THE SEVENTH CASE- TO BE CONTINUED