THE CAPTIVE _EPISODE 13

In the adjacent room Shreya Jaiswal fidgeted with the edge of her saree, played with one lock of hair that she kept tugging it behind her ear but it again fall back on her forehead. She was not at all attractive but she dressed well and she kept herself pretty. She was wearing a black saree and a golden sleeveless blouse.

She smiled at the two men in front of her trying to win compliments from them but the two police officers minded their own business. They were in casual clothes not in Khakee uniforms.

‘I do not know anything about the murders. See, my papa controls the entire property though some of them are under my name. You should talk to him.’ She smiled sheepishly.

‘Where were you on the night of 14th Feb 2018?’ Dhananjay questioned.

‘Oh. Valentines day. Me? Let me remember.’ She started rolling the lock of hair that had rescued itself from beneath her ears. She thought she was attractive and being sensual but she was annoying. ‘Valentine’s day.’ Facepalm. ‘A wild party. You can ask the host. I was there only the entire night. I can give you details. And if you give me my phone I can show you the photos and live videos.’

Saran gave her the phone which was taken from her when she was bought for questioning.

She opened her Instagram account and showed the pictures and videos from that day.

‘Isn’t this place on the way to Tarthan Nagar.’ Dhananjay questioned.

‘Yes. You have to pass through the Bougainvillea Villa to reach Tarthan Nagar. Can I take a selfie with you?’

It was facepalm for Dhananjay. ‘Madam, do you understand the seriousness of this interrogation. 15 bodies have found in your property and that is enough to frame a case against you.’

‘But I did not kill anyone. Papa has many connections. You cannot arrest me or papa.’

‘Mam. We might agree for a selfie in the end if you can just answer our questions. What say?’ Saran interfered and Dhananjay rolled his eyes.

‘Any other evidence than the host confirming your presence?’

Shreya Jaiswal made faces as if she was thinking deeply and then she almost shouted, ‘Yes. Yes. The cctv.?

Both Dhananjay and Saran exchanged glances. ‘CCTV? Where?’

‘Bouganvilla has a cctv surveillance. Not only inside but outside. Every vehicle that passes the road is captured in their cctv surveillance. You know once what happened…” Saran cut her, ‘You mean to say they record even outside their premises.’

‘Yes. Because I remember once…’ This time Dhananjay interrupted her. He spoke to Saran, ‘We might get the footage of 14th Feb 2018. It is just a week. I hope they must have stored. They should have at least a week’s data if not a month’s.’

‘Oh. That Mr. Glenn Richardson, the owner of Bouganvilla, a NRI businessman, he is crazy for security and safety. You won’t be surprised if has kept the data for six months too. You know that man is crazy, paranoia.’ She gestured with her hands that he was a mad person. ‘He records all his parties too. Crazy man.’

‘Mam, can you help us to get that footage.’ Saran tried to put up a smile and asked her gently.

‘Sure. But one condition. Selfie with me. I will post on Instagram tomorrow. I do not have one photo of real policeman.’

Dhananjay reluctantly agreed. They wanted things to speed up. If Shreya Jaiswal can call the owner and get the tapes immediately, they could find the killer quickly. Rather than they contacting them officially and getting the tapes. The entire next day would be gone. And like Shreya Jaiswal promised, she called up a number and requested for the tapes. The other party were sending the links to them in thirty minutes.

This was a breakthrough. Dhananjay breathed. First clue. There were no cctvs in that entire area by the traffic police department. Bougainvillea villa was a beautiful villa with a huge garden sprawling across 10 acres right on the edge of the turn to Tarthan Nagar. There was no other road to Tarthan Nagar. The residents of Manas colony where Tara Devi lived was the only good colony of houses in Tarthan Nagar. Most of the lands were uninhabited and waste lands. Occasionally, far away there could be one house or two but mostly inhabited by slum dwellers or very poor people. The house where Kruthi was kept almost 10 km radius there was no house. Kruthi could have got lost easily and she could have ended in circles. But her mind worked well. It was a full moon night and she could have seen the small mud track properly. She followed the mud track. In fact that was not a mud track as well. Initially, she must have found it difficult to find the mud track. Initially she must have been lost and ran few distance without finding any mudpath. She must have some sort of training or must have been a camper or a regular trekkie otherwise it was very difficult for any normal person in that traumatic state of mind to find the way. The house was surrounded by wild weeds and and wild grass. Even Dhananjay was not sure if he would find the mud track if he was lost in that place at night.

He was lost in his own thoughts sitting in the office room alone waiting for Madhuri and Aryaveer to come back from the interrogation of Bhaskar Sahini while Saran was busy with that silly woman getting the links of the CCTV footage. He was wondering how Kruthi was in the hospital. Madhuri mam did not update them what happened in the memory retrace session. His thoughts kept going back to Kruthi and how she must have survived all of this. Not only her but all the woman who were kept captive, tortured, violated and then murdered ruthlessly. And Anthony pastor, a priest? He cringed at the thought of Kruthi held captive and violated by this pervert priest.

Very soon Madhuri rushed into the room. She was discussing something with Aryaveer as she entered the office, ‘I am telling you. This Manish Brijawasi is definitely one of the abductors. And I doubt how much involved this Bhaskar Sahini or his son Pratik Sahini is.’

Dhananjay wanted to tell them about the CCTV footage but Aryaveer and Madhuri were busy discussing among themselves.

‘We can bring him for interrogation. But just Kruthi said in her memory retrace session that she saw a tattoo of a dagger on the hand of one of the captors is not a substantial case. We need something more solid than that. And even if we bring him in, we crack a few bones of him, still there is no guarantee that he will confess the crime. See these people are thick skin and criminal minded.’ Aryaveer was explaining her.

‘I know. Let us bring him in and let us crack and break him.’ Madhuri took a deep breath holding the edge of the table.

‘I think we have more than a tattoo.’ Dhananjay said calmly. He then explained to both of them what had happened in the adjacent room questioning Shreya Jaiswal and Saran has been trying to get the links of the footage.

Madhuri’s grim face blossomed into a smile and Aryaveer looked satisfied. ‘Let us wait for Saran to come back. Let us see if we can trace the vehicle of this Bhaskar Sahini in the CCTV footage. Veer, can you go and get all their vehicle numbers.’ She instructed Aryaveer. While Aryaveer was gone, she explained Dhananjay what happened in the retrace session.

‘That must be traumatic.’ Dhananjay took a long breath. His thoughts were still full of Kruthi.

‘It sure was. She did good, Ajay. She is an extraordinary girl. We will get the entire report tomorrow afternoon. Lavleen will be mentioning all that in her report.’

Saran and Aryaveer were back in the next ten minutes. Saran played the video tape on 14th Feb 2018 and he stopped at one place. They zoomed the screen. It was a black Creta. They could not see the driver or anyone. But the number plate was DH 28 0415. It was Bhaskar Sahini’s car. Not only that they viewed multiple days data after Feb 2018 and they could see this black creta and another two cars that belonged to Bhaskar Sahini. One was DH 28 0716 and DH 028 0514. All were registered under the name of Bhaskar Sahini. It took them almost four hours to re-run, zoom and check the cctv coverage. Shreya Jaiswal was sent home and Bhaskar Sahini was still in custody.

They had data from 1st January 2018 and there were multiple trips of the car. The cameras were placed in such a way that they caught the rear view of the cars and so to see the number plates was easy. Dhananjay thanked the owner of the Bouganvilla villa, he had done such great thing unknowingly. He was helping them to catch the killer. And no one knew that there was a cctv installed. The cctv was installed for the owner’s safety but it recorded all the cars that went to Tarthan Nagar. Dhananjay say Tara Devi and her husband riding on their bike a few times. They also tried to identify whether Anthony Pastor travelled in the car. But he did not own a car. Must be of the church or he must be the one who drove Bhaskar Sahini’s car with his driver Manish. It was possible.

They had now a strong case against Bhaskar Sahini too. They did one more round of questioning.

‘Bhaskar Sahini was shocked. No I never went there.’

‘Then why is your vehicle here in all these photos. These are from CCTV footage.’

‘They have a cctv there?’

‘Answer my question.’ Aryaveer screamed in his ears and Bhaskar Sahini yelped.

‘Must be Manish. I send him to do a lot of things for me. Like I said he runs a lot of errands for me. So he could be using my cars. Sometimes he does not return the car home. He takes with him home or he parks at my office or other house.’

‘Other house?’ Madhuri asked in surprise.

‘My mistress house.’

‘You are saying that you did not know where your car went. Where your driver took your car?’

‘I honestly don’t know. See I a might be a bad person. I am a lusty greedy guy. I need a new woman every night. Manish used to arrange all that. I trusted him and must have given him some slack. But I did not do this. You have to believe me.’ Bhaskar Sahini broke into tears.

Madhuri and her team prepared for seize and arrest on Manish’s house. It was now almost 3 a.m. By the time they get to Manish’s room, it would be 4 .30. He must be sleeping. Perfect time she thought. Manish was not aware of Bhaskar’s arrest. It was his off day today. They must not waste any single moment. Because if he flees away then it would be very difficult to catch him and he is the link to arrest the Boss, the alpha of this crime group.