OPERATION MUSKAN

                    

NOTE: This story is based on real-life incidents, that happened in Chhattisgarh. It’s dedicated to all those sincere police officers, who worked tirelessly for the welfare of the Indian nation.

FEBRUARY, 2023

KORBA, CHHATTISGARH

At that time Robinson Guria became the SP of Korba. He is very smart and has a sense of duty. In a few days after he took charge, around few areas of Chhattisgarh, he noticed a lot of missing and human trafficking cases were pending without being solved. He thought that it would not be okay if he left it like this. In a few days after he took charge he decided to solve the case one by one and started an operation called Operation Muskan.

What was the main motive of this operation means, without any leads in the missing complaints filed to the police, the cases which had no improvement for years, and most importantly if the missing persons were female and children, the main motive of this operation is to take that cases and solve it.

Now Robinson decided to finish the operation muskan successfully. He started checking each pending file which was filed in Korba police station. When he was looking, he saw a file which was not opened for a long time. It was full of dust.

Robinson who took that file opened it and started reading. When he was looking at that file, in January 2019, he read a headline that Salma Sultana was missing. A few minutes later, in his mind, after reading the file completely, a lot of questions and doubts arised. Even though it’s been 5 years since Salma went missing, and how much ever the police tried, he wondered why they didn’t get any lead. He moved all the other pending files aside.

As a first case of Operation Muskan, Robinson took the case of 5 years missing, and in which the police didn’t even get any lead, Salma Sultana’s case was started. To finish this case Robinson worked day and night for 5 months.

As a result in August 22, 2023, in the national highways of Korba city which is a four lane road, Robinson took his team to the middle of the road where the vehicles are coming and going. He walked a few meters here and there on that road and pointed out a place. He ordered his team to dig there. The team who thought why he is asking to dig the national highway and what he will get there.

Realizing that they should do whatever the higher official are saying, the team started digging that place. After a few minutes of digging when the time passed, from the place where they were digging they started getting a bad smell. In a few minutes to everyone’s surprise and shock, a human skeleton of a person was found there. It’s none other than, Salma Sultana, who has been searched by the police for five years.

FEW YEARS BACK

In 1993, Salma was born in a small village Kusmunda in Chhattisgarh. From her childhood she likes to watch the news readers in the news channels. Since there were no TV in all the houses and that time, all the kids will go to a house which has TV and watch there.

When all kids were watching cinema and cartoon, Salma will fight for TV news channel. This desire, when she grew up and become a big person, it triggered the interest of becoming a news anchor to Salma.

The days passed and Salma finished the college. Like she wished in her childhood, she joined as a news anchor in a local news channel. Now she got the life she wished. But the television office in which she joined as a news anchor, is in Korba. It is little away from Kusmunda. It was uncomfortable for her to travel to the office and house.

Because of this Salma stayed in a girls hostel near to her office in Korba and started working. On the weekend she will go to Kusmunda and visit her parents. At this time when her life is going like this, near her hostel, she met a 37 year old Madhur Sahu, who is a gym owner and instructor. Between both of them who were introduced as a good friends, as days passed they fell in love. Like a lot of true love their love also started getting strong as the days passed. After a few days they decided to talk in their home about getting permission for the marriage.

Madhur and Salma decided to take their relationship to the next level. When her life was going like this, a day which no one expected came.

OCTOBER 21, 2018

Since it is a Saturday, as usual to see her parents, Salma decided to go to Kusmunda and started to get ready. She decided to go on the train as usual and said bye to Madhur Sahu. She left from Korba in the train.

At that time Madhur Sahu doesn’t know, that it was the last time he is going to see Salma. Because after this not only him but no one saw her. In fact there is not even a single evidence where she went. Since their daughter didn’t come home till the evening Salma’s parents panicked and started calling Salma continuously. But there was no response from her side. Since Salma didn’t attend the phone they started calling her friends and colleagues.

“Is Salma with you? She is not attending any calls from us. Whether you know anything about her?”

For that they said: “We saw Salma last Friday in the office. When she went to the hostel in the evening after the office, she said that she is going to Kusmunda today. After that we didn’t see her.” Hearing this Salma’s parents panicked and went to her hostel in Korba. They also went to the place where she worked and started searching in all the places. But how much ever they tried they couldn’t get any information about Salma.

The days passed like this and Salma’s parents became tired of searching her. They consoled themselves that their daughter will come home one day. Her parents started to wait for Salma to come home.

3 MONTHS LATER

JANUARY 2019

3 months after Salma went missing, for the first time Salma’s family gave a missing complaint to the police. The police took the case and started the investigation. Madhur Sahu, her colleagues like this they started investigating everyone. But they didn’t get any information in that.

The same time, police had a doubt on Salma’s parents from the beginning. They questioned them: “You searched your daughter when she went missing. Did you really think that she will return one day and leave it as it is? It looks very weird. I suspect something is wrong.”

When the parents blinked, the police said further: “Because without knowing where your daughter was and how was she for 3 months, why you didn’t give a complaint to us at the beginning? Why you were waiting for this many days? Whether you killed Salma?” The police started questioning Salma’s parents.

This is the statement given by Salma’s parents for all the questions.

“We didn’t like that she joined as a news anchor after college. Even after we said that media life is not fit for our life, Salma was very adamant of joining to that job. Because of this she fought with us and came out of the house.” Salma’s mother started giving her statement to the police.

“Sir. At that time, we got the next bombshell. I was shocked to hear that Salma was in love with the person there.”

The police questioned Salma’s parents.

“What’s there in this? You didn’t search her for three months since she loved someone else?”

“Sir. It was not the only reason for our anger. Beyond that our daughter in Korba was not staying in girls hostel. We came to know that she was in a live-in-relationship with her lover in the same house. I was heartbroken upon hearing this.” Salma’s mother said with tears in her eyes.

“Even though we said not to do like this, Salma didn’t care about it. As the days passed we stopped talking to her sir. But whenever she thought about it, she will come to our house in Kusmunda to visit us. But, she’ll return immediately. And on October 21, she told me that she was visiting and got ready. But she didn’t reach home till the evening. She has a lot of male friends, sir. She will be travelling with them to different places and foreign. She won’t talk to us for months. I thought that she might have went with her friends instead of coming to visit us. But after three months she went missing, her father died. To inform this we called and messaged her. To her friends and colleagues who are speaking to her, we informed them and asked them to say about her father’s death to her. But she didn’t even come for her father’s death. That’s when we became suspicious. Even though we are angry on her, she is not a stone-hearted person for not to attend her father’s funeral. That’s why we came and gave a missing complaint now.” Salma’s mother said. Hearing this the police were also convinced.

At the same time railway police confirmed that Salma’s scooter is still in the railway station. They started thinking in two ways. One is Salma might have gone somewhere by herself. Or else someone might have kidnapped her. They started investigating in that angle. Now they investigated Madhur Sahu. In that investigation as a first thing his alibi was checked. In that he was at the gym the whole day. It was confirmed that he didn’t go anywhere.

In this case other than the scooter found in the railway station, there was no other evidence. Without being able to forward the case further, the case stopped in that place. Moreover the police didn’t get any lead about where Salma went and what happened to her. When the police was investigating the days became weeks and the week became years.

Salma Sultana’s case started changing into a cold case. In this situation on February 2023, SP Robinson entered this case. Robinson who read Salma’s file, found something was not right in this case. He noticed a lot of missing details in this case. To finish this case successfully, for the first case of Muskan Operation he involved in a serious search.

As a first thing Robinson checked Salma’s call records and bank account status. Most importantly he checked whether it is active. When he was checking, on October 20, 2018, from Salma’s mobile phone, that is, one day before she went missing she made the last call.

Robinson found that there were no calls after that. Now with the mobile records they collected the history of who she was talking to. With that data, they notice that she was talking to her live in boyfriend Madhur Sahu. But since they were lovers,

Robinson thought that it can’t be taken as an evidence. Now he started checking Salma’s bank account statements. From the day Salma went missing, to till this date, when they checked whether her account was active in between, the bank account was active, and that too for not one or two days. They found that for a year they were paying a monthly EMI from that account. But it was not Salma, who was paying that EMI monthly. It was Salma’s live-in boyfriend Madhur Sahu.

When Robinson investigated this deeply, Salma took a loan. He found that till 2019 Madhur Sahu was paying it monthly. Now without investigating Madhur Sahu directly, he went to the Union Bank branch where Salma took loan. He showed both of their account details and questioned about Salma and Madhur Sahu.

After checking the details, the bank staff told to Robinson: “Sir. Loan applicant Salma Sultana disappeared without paying the money. We couldn’t reach her. So we asked the co-applicant Madhur Sahu to pay for it. He paid loan EMI for a few months. But he stopped it in a year. When we asked about it from our side, he behaved very indecently and rude. Also he did this in a lot of banks. Because there were a lot of over-dues in his name.

Hearing all this, Robinson understood that it was the perfect time to investigate Madhur Sahu. He started searching him. Since they couldn’t find him in his house or gym, Robinson got five of his close friends and gym mates and started investigating them.

“What do you know about Madhur Sahu? Do you know where he is now?” Like this they started asking one by one. When the investigation is going on, among the five 29-years old Kaushal Shrivas, and 26-years old Atul Sharma, both of them started answering in contradictions to all the questions asked by the police. They were answering very suspiciously.

The police understood the panic in their talking. He took them to a separate room and started investigating them. When he started investigating in their own way, the whole story of what happened to Salma Sultana came out. Hearing their confession the police were frozen in shock. Because the police were surprised to hear their master plan.

FEW YEARS BACK

2018-2023

Salma and Madhur Sahu’s live-in-relationship in Korba city went very well. In this situation, Madhur Sahu asked 7 lakhs from Salma for doing business. Since he is the one she is going to get married, Salma took a loan of 7 lakhs in Union bank and gave it to him.

After that the days passed. Now Salma noticed a difference in Sahu’s character. Without paying the loan properly, and without giving the money to Salma, he started avoiding her. Because of this Salma was heartbroken. When she asked about this to Sahu. But he didn’t even consider it. Because of this they often started fighting.

OCTOBER 20, 2018

FRIDAY

On the night of October 20, 2018, Salma and Sahu had a very big argument. Madhur Sahu got angry in that. He called his friend, Kaushal Shrivas to come to his flat. Kaushal came to the flat in a few minutes and opened the door. There, Salma and Madhur Sahu were screaming and fighting.

Kaushal was shocked to see this. Before he say a word, Madhur Sahu snatched Salma’s shawl and started strangling her.

If you think that Kaushal tried to stop it in shock, no it is not. Instead, Kaushal went and grabbed her hands and legs tightly. Because before coming to this flat Kaushal know that Madhur Sahu is going to kill Salma. The things they planned after that was beyond a movie.

After killing Salma, Sahu turned towards Kaushal. He said to him: “Hey Kaushal. I called you to help me for murdering Salma. Note this important point da. Don’t say anything about this to anyone. For doing that, I will give 20 lakhs for you.” Now in a few minutes Salma suffocated and died there pitifully.

Madhur Sahu and Kaushal realized that she was dead. Now, they called their another friend Atul Sharma and asked him to come. After that all three of them decided to dispose Salma’s body. But since there were human movements outside the flat they waited till midnight.

Now it is midnight and around 1:00 a.m., they wrapped Salma’s body in a bed sheet and kept it in the car’s backseat and started the vehicle. All three of them started thinking where to dispose Salma’s body.

At that time, Atul Sharma gave an idea. He said: “Hey. Road work is going on in Korba highways. Soon they will put tar in the national highways. So if we take her dead body and bury in that main road, in one week they will put the road and no one can find Salma.”

(Hearing this information, did anyone remember about the Tamil movie which came in 2015? And if it is, then pause reading this story and comment the movie name in the comment section. If you think why I am asking this in between the story means, there is a reason for it readers. Because in that film after killing a bad person, and how they are escaping from it as a family, they said it beautifully with suspense. At the same time they made it very natural. This movie was released in 2015. If you ask what is the link between this movie and Salma’s case, there is a link.)

All the three members who were a suspect in Salma’s murder, saw this 2015 movie before killing her. And in the climax, when they were building police station in hero’s village, at midnight he will go to the police station and dig a pit in between. Then, he buried the dead body there and this scene came to their mind. What was the difference mean it is a reel in the movie but they did it for real.

Now like they thought Kaushal, Atul and Madhur went to the highways, chose a place and started digging there. It’s not just 3 or 4 meters. They dug up to 8 meters. Now, they took the body of Salma. Her body was wrapped in a bed sheet and covered in a plastic paper. They buried her there and cleaned the place.

Before sunrise, Atul Sharma, Madhur Shah and Kaushal left the place. On the morning of October 21 as usual Madhur Sahu went to the gym and Kaushal took Salma’s scooter. He left it in the parking lot of the railway station and went home. They diverted the case that Salma went missing from the railway station.

PRESENT

In this place the police had a doubt at present.

He asked to Kaushal: “When you were digging in between the road did no one saw you three ah? No one asked you what they were doing?”

“No sir. No one might have seen us. Since the road work is going on, they stopped the vehicle entry. Like we thought instead of 1 week they put tar in 2 days.” Kaushal said and he further added, “Sir. We thought that we escaped and started scattering in all direction. Till 2018 and 2019 to escape from being suspected by everyone, Madhur Sahu paid the monthly EMI correctly and after 2019 he stopped it sir.”

“But like an all time thief will get caught one day, our SP Robinson sir took this case to this level.” One of the police constable in the investigation room said to his another police constable. Now Robinson’s team noted all the statements given by Kaushal and Atul.

The police planned to send a team to search for Madhur Sahu. But Robinson said: “There is no need for that. He will come to Korba himself tomorrow.” He asked Kaushal to call Madhur Sahu. He asked him to say, “It looks like the police will find the body we buried in highway. So immediately come here. We will divert the police. If possible, we can destroy all the evidence.” Like this they asked him to say.

Like the police said, Kaushal spoke to him. Madhur Sahu who believed it came to Korba the next day. When he came the police arrested him. The police who kept all three of them in the same custody, asked where they buried Salma’s body. They asked about the landmark near it. But it’s been more than 5 years since they buried her. They said: “I couldn’t remember it sir.”

Robinson’s team cannot dig up the whole highway in an assumption. Since it will be disturbing to the public and they should get permission from National Highway Authority of India. With only the details said by the suspects, Robinson understood that they cannot take Salma’s body out. He asked everyone calmly: “Whether you remember any landmark?” He asked them to think carefully.

At that time, Atul Sharma remembered a thing. He said to Robinson: “Sir. Near the place we buried Salma there was a tree.”

“It’s been more than 5 years and there is not only one tree in the highway, and the road was changed. There’s not even a single chance for the tree to be there. Is this an evidence?” Among the police who thought that it was not even evidence, Robinson left the place saying that this information is enough.

In 2019, not only Robinson passed UPSC exam. He also came in top 15. Apart from that, he is an engineer. Robinson is very interested in technology. He was talented in both technology and investigation.

Now the tree which Atul said, using the Google Earth pro, in 2018 there is a chance that the tree might be there and he took the map. What was the problem here means, when all three of them buried Salma’s body it was a single lane. But in the last 5 years it was converted into four lane road.

A small pause came in this case. But Robinson thought that he shouldn’t leave this half way and he started working with belief. In 2018, the forest officers and the local villagers who were there, to all the people he started asking whether a tree was there at this place. As a result the map found in the Google Earth Pro, and according to the information by the locals, they marked a particular place saying that the tree said by Atul must be in this place.

But luckily in 2017 and 2018, in the land survey reports, they found a clear image of the tree. Now the police asked for help from the Public Work Department(PWD). That is in the particular distance they asked where that tree might have been. When PWD surveyed that place they gave 4 fixed square shape points and said that the tree might have been there.

The suspects also said that they buried Salma’s body before the tree. Since the place said by the PWD and the suspects were nearby, Robinson collected all this information. He submitted it to the National Highway Authority of India and asked permission for digging it.

The authorities who saw this said: “There might be a chance that the body is there. But there is no strong evidence to prove that, Robinson sir. So it will be disturbing to the public sir.” They rejected the request.

Months passed. But Robinson didn’t leave this case. To convince the National Highway Authority of India, he started collecting a strong evidence and in that he used ground penetrating radar technology. They use this radar machine usually to find hard objects like metal, pipes and concrete, under the ground. But in this case, not only the hard objects, they tuned it to detect natural content like calcium. Since this calcium contents are present in our bone and when they test in the surface the police team thought that they can detect body bones.

Before taking this machine to the crime scene, Robinson tested it in the graveyard. It perfectly deducted the calcium contents there. Robinson’s teammate brought this to the crime scene and checked it. Like everyone expected it started detecting the calcium. Since the evidence were very strong, the highway authorities approved to dig there.

After 6 months of effort, on August 22, 2023, Robinson and the police team dug that place. When they dug there they found Salma’s bones. Along with that Salma’s handbag, slippers, hair like this they collected everything. To confirm whether it is really Salma’s bone, her slipper size and DNA was matched with her parent’s DNA and checked everything to confirm that it’s Salma.

Finally Robinson found Salma’s dead body. Madhur Shah, Atul Sharma and Kaushal were also arrested. If you ask whether the case is over, wait. I said that there is a lot of twist right. This is where the next twist was waiting for the police.

Even though Robinson came all this way and solved this case, he was still having doubts about the reason for Salma’s murder.

“He cheated without repaying loan. Whether he killed her for that?” This was there for Robinson from the starting. Since Madhur Sahu called Kaushal said: “I will give you 20 lakhs if you didn’t say this to anyone.”

“If he can hide a crime by giving 20 lakhs means, he could have decently separated from Salma by paying 7 lakhs loan, right?” This doubt kept on running in Robinson’s mind. But after finding Salma’s dead body, he thought of asking it to Madhur Sahu and now the time has come for that.

The twist which came after, not only Robinson. But, no one expected it. Even Kaushal and Atul didn’t know about this. This is the twist that was given by Madhur Sahu.

Not only Salma. But Madhur Sahu was in contact with lot of women. He brainwashed everyone and asked money from them. That’s how Salma also fell in this trap. Now after getting the money from her, he started avoiding her.

Salma got angry because of that. She started torturing Madhur to marry her. But what was another twist in this means, Madhur Sahu was already married and has two children. Salma also know that he is married. Knowing all these things only, she was in live-in-relationship with him.

Now Salma started asking Madhur Sahu to leave his wife and children and marry her. She started threatening him by saying that she will say about them to his wife. He became angry and thought of killing her.

On October 20 that night they got into an argument. Madhur Sahu got angry during that argument. He strangled Salma with a shawl. This was the main reason for him to kill Salma.

Robinson and the police team who came to know all this, wrote everything in charge sheet and submitted it in the court.

EPILOGUE

“Even after knowing that he is married and a womanizer, and even after her parents said no, without considering anything, Is Salma wrong or this pitiless animals in the society are wrong, I will leave the answer to you. It is not wrong to love. But seeing the appearance and by destroying other’s life, and if you think of loving like that then it is wrong. And this is the end of Salma and Madhur Sahu who loved like that. Moreover even after the police dropped the case without any leads, by working hard for 5 months, Robinson finished this case perfectly. A big hats off to him and his team. Because looking at this I felt like watching a movie. I feel happy that these type of police officers were also there. I am searching and providing different stories like this for you. So dear readers. Comment your opinions down without forgetting.”