Supari Killer

Raghavan got up from his bed grumpy. Sleep eluded him the previous night. His program ratings were gravitating down and the pressure was building up. He went through the motion of getting ready to office when his wife Radhika announced that her parents were descending from Chennai for a few days. Raghavan's irritation grew leaps and bounds.

By this time, it started raining heavily. He hated when it rained. The potholes on the road will all be filled up. Traffic will crawl. He banged the door angrily and rushed to his car. Radhika made a face behind the closed door. She too felt the same when Raghav's parents descended to their abode.

As Raghav neared the ring road signal he saw the signal turning red. He was in no mood to stop and pressed the gas. A two-wheeler driver was also in no mood to wait. Raghav hit him but didn’t stop the car. He calculated that heavy rains would provide sufficient cover for this hit and run accident.

A female cop Hemavathi who took shelter under a corner shop noticed the accident. But in the rain, she could only see that the car was a shade of blue, grey or even black. She wasn’t sure. She rushed to the spot. The driver had fallen unconscious. She checked the pulse and it was okay. She retrieved her smart phone and took a couple of pictures. She signalled to the auto driver who helped her carry the body and they slowly made their way to the hospital. Once the hospital staff took charge, she WhatsApped the picture to the accident cell. The two-wheeler's driver was identified to be one Manjunath from his license in the wallet from his back pocket in his trousers.

As soon as the IT guy Ramesh in the accident cell of the traffic police entered the license number his computer beeped. He got a pleasant shock. He immediately dialled ACP Muralidhar and informed him that the bike which has involved in a ‘supari’ murder case the previous week has been located. The driver was lying unconscious at the hospital and the constable Hemavathi was there with him.

Muralidhar immediately dialled Hemavathi and asked her to ensure that the hospital doesn’t discharge the accident victim. He called upon his ASI to accompany and rushed to the hospital.

Manjunath, when he woke up was shocked to find himself at the hospital. His head was still reeling under pain and confusion. The attendant doctor had warned Murali that he was yet to estimate the damage on Manjunath's head and any statement made by Manjunath cannot be valid legally.

A week earlier the sensational murder had taken place. A page three corporate honcho was killed by a ‘supari' murder. Only piece of evidence that was obtained was the bike’s license plate captured by a CCTV from a nearby shop. Police was waiting for some break through and Muralidhar was under tremendous pressure.

Manjunath confessed to the theft of the two-wheeler from the Byappanahalli metro parking station. He also confessed to making his livelihood out of bike thievery. He didn’t respond to questions related to the supari killing and appeared confused. The doctor intervened and stopped the questioning.

It was noon when Raghavan got a call from Muralidhar. They were schoolmates and continued to remain as good friends. Raghavan got a shot in the arm and soon organized things to release the breakthrough news in his TV channel. It was a win-win for both the friends and provided much needed relief from the current pressures. Soon Muralidhar was beaming in the Karnataka TV channel as he was being interviewed by Raghavan about the latest catch. Muralidhar had told Raghavan earlier much to his relief that the CCTV footage of the accident was totally blurred due to heavy rains. Raghavan was thrilled when the co-owner of Karnataka TV called him and congratulated him on the breakthrough story.

Radhika was pleasantly surprised when Raghav was beaming as he handed over a packet of sweets and savoury her parents particularly liked. She wondered what had brought the transformation.

At a resort in Ooty the supari killer Mahesh laughed his heart out when he saw the news link sent by the rival honcho who gave him the supari contract. He thought to himself what a fool Muralidhar was to think that the bike thief could be the killer. Unknown to both Raghavan and Muralidhar, Mahesh was their close classmate at school and had stopped his education when he failed the Board exam. He was feared by his nick name ‘shadow’ in the underworld but nobody knew who he was. His workings disproved the theory that the perpetrator of a crime inevitably leaves some evidence.