Srinivas Cv

Tragedy Crime

4.0  

Srinivas Cv

Tragedy Crime

Justice?

Justice?

8 mins
379


Getting a call at 2 AM was not new for Sandeep. Being an SP of police, that was part of the duty. But getting a call from the home minister of the state was not ordinary. He wiped his face and looked at the phone to confirm it was the home minister. One more ring and he picked the call. 

"Okay, Sir. Immediately, sir. Sure, sir. I am starting now, sir. I will follow the case myself, sir. I will update the findings to you by morning, sir". The call ended, and Sandeep got up. His wife asked who was the call and where was he going at that time of the night. 


"It is my husband. I have to go to the station. You go back to sleep", replied irritated Sandeep.


On any other day, most of the night staff would have been half into their sleep. Today the whole station was alert. Sandeep made a call to the station before he started to make sure of that. 


The SI handed the file to Sandeep. Sandeep took a few minutes to scan through the file and turned to the SI, Raghu.


"There is nothing in this. What should I tell the home minister?" asked Sandeep.


"Sir, that area is a slum. No CCTV or any other way to get information."

"Don't give me stupid reasons. As police, we need to investigate and find clues. There is none here."


"I did all the inquiries, sir. The girl was nineteen-year-old. That was the age of marriage in the community. She was a topper in college and wanted to do higher studies. So, when her father talked about marriage, she fought with her father. After the fight, she left for her aunt's house, which was close to her home. But, she never reached her aunt's house."


"Have you checked usual suspects?"

"As far as our inquiry went, there were no boyfriends. No Romeos chasing her. "

"This was the same report you gave me a week ago. The home minister is killing me for closing this quickly", blurted out the Sandeep.

"I don't understand, sir. We have many of these cases pending. Why is this one a priority?" doubtfully enquired Raghu.

"This one has the media interest. Let us not forget after the Nirbhaya case every government wants to be careful."

"Does that not mean we should care for all cases equally."

The Sandeepturned to the rest of the officers in the stations, and all started laughing out loud. The laughs went on for a good two minutes, only to be stopped by a ringing mobile of Sandeep. Sandeep signaled all to stop. It was the minister again. 


"Yes, sir."

"....."

"We made good progress, sir."

"....."

"We will not encounter like last time, sir."

"...."

"If the situation is grim, can we take some tough steps?"

"...."

"I understand, sir. We don't get directly involved, sir. Thank you."


After the call, Sandeep let out a breath as if releasing out the pressure of the phone call. He turned to Raghu in disgust and pointed to the phone. The signal meant, "I had lied to HM because of you". Raghu had no response. Disappointed, Sandeep let his shoulders drop. That was when another constable came running. 

"Sir, I found some clue."

"Very, good. What is it?" asked Sandeep enthusiastically.

"CCTV footage. A guy was following the girl in the video."

"I have seen this CCTV footage, sir. That is useless.", said Raghu.

"You don't have clues, and you are stopping others too?" admonished Sandeep.


Disappointed, Raghu left the station. It was already 6:30 in the morning. He had to take his mother to the hospital by 7:30 AM. He booked a full-body check-up for her. He also knew the CCTV was a dead end, so he left the station. 


Once in the hospital waiting room, Raghu started thinking. Why not all the cases be given the same priority. Who should he blame, the media, the opposition, the women's organizations, the ministers, his department, or himself? With the little experience he had, he did not know who to blame and move on. So he felt it was his fault. 


To distract himself, he turned to the running television in the room. He did not expect any exciting program. But to his wild surprise, the TV news turned to be more than exciting. The picture that was flashing on the TV, and the video that was running had drawn his attention. He wanted to listen to what the news lady was saying. It was the waiting room, and the sound was low as not to disturb the patients. He went close to the TV for better sound, still with no luck. He quickly picked his phone and browsed through flashing news. It was there, as the first result. 


"The police have identified the person responsible for the rape and murder of the girl. It was one of the guys who was following her the night of her missing. The police have CCTV footage of the night the girl went missing. 


Going into details, the guy had been following her for many days. On that unfortunate night, he found her alone and took advantage. ...."


The rest of it seems to be some buffer story. Raghu started thinking, when did the team found her body. As far as he knew, the CCTV footage was an old one. Did he make the mistake of ignoring it? Even if that was the case, how can they get all this info in few hours? Considering for many days, we had zero clues. He wanted to run to the station but could not. 


He had to wait till his mother finished her check-up and met the doctor. The doctor said that his mother was doing okay. He advised her to do a few exercises to help her knee pain. He gave her a prescription but said to take it only when the pain was unbearable. He thanked the doctor and quickly got into a taxi to go home. 


On reaching home, he was changing into uniform. His mother was surprised to see him going to the station after finishing a long night shift. But she knew very well there was no arguing with him. Before he was ready, she went on to bring some toast for him to eat. He wanted to run to the station and did not want to wait to finish the toast. But he sat down to have it anyway.


He switched on the TV, and the picture of the same kid started scrolling again. This time there was more information. 


"The guy was missing from the day the girl went missing. His mother said he called her a few weeks ago. He told her he was to come home only after a few months. The police enquired further. They found he got a passport and a visa for the middle-east recently. Now, the police are worried he might run away from the country.


Now, the police want all our help. If anyone of you knows anything about this person, please come forward. The police also announced prize money of 10 lakhs."


Raghu finished his bread quickly, gulped the juice, and ran with the orange in his pocket. He was frustrated with himself for being completely wrong. He wanted to help his team before it was late. He kept driving the speed limit to reach the station as quickly as possible. The morning traffic started, and he was stuck in a signal for more than a few minutes. He kept reviewing everything that happened in the case waiting in the traffic. What did he miss? How can he miss? On rewinding everything, he came and stopped at the conversation Sandeep had with the HM the previous night. Now, he panicked. He wanted to head to the station immediately. He cannot let this happen again.


After what felt like an eternity, he reached the station. The station was all in action. Sandeep was still in the station. Seeing Raghu, Sandeep gave an expression of disappointment.


"You said it was nothing?" asked Sandeep.

"Yes, sir. It is still nothing. This all seems too much of a coincidence to be true." replied Raghu.

"Don't be like this. We got all the strings tied together. The culprit will be in our hand in a day."

"I need to review, sir. There is something wrong."

"Get lost. The elections are next week. The HM will kill me if I change my story now."


That was when the same officer from earlier came running. 

"Sir, we found the guy."

"Excellent, what did I tell you?" turning to Raghu, commented Sandeep.

"Where is he? Did you bring him with you?" asked Sandeep to the officer.

"No, sir. Not possible."

"Why? Did he go to middle-east? We can ask for extradition?"

"No, sir. He committed suicide."

"Oh my god," exclaimed Raghu.

"Okay, all for our good. Tell the media he committed suicide in shame and close the case", said Sandeep. 


"But, sir. We don't know that," exclaimed Raghu.

As usual, no one cares for objective truth. 


Raghu was preparing the files to close the case. He called the old head-constable for some paper. The head-constable came and saw that Raghu was distracted. The head-constable asked what was going on.


Raghu pointed to the case file. 

"What is wrong, sir?" asked the constable.

"Don't know how to write lies without flinching?" replied Raghu.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"The CCTV footage we got was from the college camera. They both study in the same college. He was behind her because they both were heading to the same bus stop." said Raghu.

"What about the other CCTV footage of him following the girl?" 

"The video was dark. Whatever caught on it was not clear. It was only a man. As there is no time in the video. We don't know who the man in the video is. It could be her father walking her home from the bus stop. He did it every day as the streets were dark."

"The guy got a passport and visa and told his mother he is not coming home for a while?"

"I enquired the family is deep in debt. But his mother wants him to finish his education. It was his dead father's last wish. This guy learned about the problems and decided to go to middle-east as a construction worker to give his mother respite. "

"Sir, but he committed suicide."

"That is the only thing I cannot enquire anyone about, except for the god", exclaimed Raghu.


P.S.: Raghu finished the report and walked into Sandeep's room to hand it to him. Sandeep was in a call, talking and laughing. Raghu only heard a little before leaving the room. 

"Yes, sir. As you said, we closed the case. No one doubts this is an encounter." and kept laughing.


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