The Coward

July 13th, 2011, Will City

“After going through all the provided evidence, written and biological; I came to a conclusion that the heinous crime of rape was committed and victim Miss Juhi went through a lot of physical and mental torture. This is also pertinent to mention that wound and internal injuries inflicted on her are the worst crime in my sense. This is also important to see that the victim identified the alleged rapist and we decided to put them behind the bars till this date, we want to make this country a safe place for our daughters, wives and mothers. It was solely alleged rapists' responsibility to prove them innocent. We gave them a fair chance, the only evidence they could provide, was that they were all in the lockup of Devdurg civil line police station for rash driving through the main street full of school children. Police station SHO evidence is important in this regard. But when the crime is rape and the victim has recognized all the five alleged rapists, this evidence became trivial and forged in my view. Now I must mention that the smudges and semen found on the victim's body were sent to three prominent forensic laboratories of India, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Delhi to match with all the five alleged rapists DNA profiles, reports are in front of me. Reports say that the DNA profiles of the alleged rapists and semen found on the victim’s body are different, they don’t match”.

There was pin-drop silence at judge A. K. Mishra's courtroom in Will City until the judge told about the DNA profiling. There was a sound of murmur in the court and the judge continued.

“Silence please, I haven’t concluded yet. DNA profiling is important evidence, we cannot ignore it. As there is no biological evidence against the alleged rapists, Rahul, Sumit, Jimmy, Daljeet and Billa, I cannot put them behind the bars anymore, so I pronounce them not guilty and free them”.

There was an uproar in the court, but the judge silenced them and continued.

“I know there was a crime committed, but this is the police's sheer failure to not find the real culprits. I warn the police for arresting the wrong people and wasting the time of the court and advise them to reinvestigate the case and arrest the real criminals so that justice could be done”.

After pronouncing the judgment the judge got up and went back to his chamber.

Professor Dilip was surprised at the outcome of this one-year-long fight, which has proved him and his poor daughter wrong. The rapists on the other side of the court were laughing and making bawdy remarks about him and his daughter. He came out of the court with his head down.

“Are you going to file an appeal?” asked a TV reporter.

He looked at the reporter and went ahead without saying a word.

“I think you are not going to file an appeal, are you afraid of those people?” asked another reporter.

Professor increased his pace, he wanted to go out of the court premises as soon as possible.

“Are you a coward? Yes, he is a coward.” Said another reporter.

Life Of A Coward

The professor was stunned at the outcome of the case, media which was increasing its TRP with this case suddenly got silent and diverted its attention on other important issues.

Juhi, an Indian Civil Services Examination’s main exam aspirant has been long discharged from the hospital, but she has lost her senses, she has become suicidal. Dilip has to watch her all the time. Finally, he decided to take long leave from college and left the city to live in Delhi.

It took three months to send Juhi back to new coaching to prepare for her mains. She has stopped talking to her father, she wanted him to retaliate but instead, he left the city. He proved to be a coward man and a coward father.

The year 2015, New Delhi

Rahul: Age 29, MLA ruling party, New Delhi.

Sumit: Age 30, Builder, Greater Noida.

Jimmy: Age 28, Exporter, Andheri West, Mumbai.

Billa: Age 31, Shooter Moosa gang, Will City.

Daljeet Singh: Age 32, Garment Factory Owner, Ontario, Canada.

Dilip looked at the attached photographs with the email, all were looking the same as they were four years ago. Imran the private detective did a wonderful job. He has been on their tails for four years.

All these five men were the sinners who raped his innocent daughter, beat her ruthlessly. He waited patiently all these four years to retaliate. That time they were sons of powerful men and now they were all powerful. He deleted all the details and pictures and even emptied his computer's recycle bin.

June 20^th, Greater Noida

Sumit entered his expensive office and asked his office clerk about today's appointments. He told him that he had to meet the authority's chairman and executive engineer about his new housing project. But there is a man who wants to meet him and waiting for a long time.

"Who is he?"

"No idea."

"Okay, send him in."

The man who entered his office after two minutes was in his mid-fifties, was lean and tall and has a little beard.

"What do you want?"

Instead of answering, the man took out a colt magnum revolver with a silencer on its barrel and fired. The big bullet smashed Sumit's face. The man placed the revolver in his coat pocket and walked out of his office.

June 23^rd, Mumbai

Jimmy was surprised to see the man who was sitting on his opposite table at his favourite restaurant in Colaba. The bearded man was somehow familiar, he tried hard to remember him. Yes, this is Professor Dilip, the father of his college time flame Juhi. She was hot, real hot, but she didn't allow anyone to lay hand on her. He recalled the day when they abducted her and raped her. It was their sheer luck that their fathers bought law and made the bio evidence changed to get them free.

He fished out his cell phone and dialled Rahul's number before the last ring phone was attended by someone stranger.

"Vidhayak ji meeting mei hai," (The MLA is in a meeting) and the phone was disconnected.

"Saala bahut busy ho gaya hai." (The idiot has become damn busy) said Jimmy disapprovingly and looked again at the old man. He was not there, he had gone.

Jimmy's current girlfriend Tara was about to join him at the restaurant for the dinner, after dinner he'll have fun with her. He went on sipping his beer. Suddenly his eyes lit up when he saw Tara entering the restaurant. Jimmy ordered a punch of old smuggler for himself and Gin for Tara. After a brief chit chat, they both started drinking their drinks. After three rounds of their drinks, they ordered the dinner.

Their dinner lasted just for twenty minutes and they left the restaurant. Parking was just in the back of the restaurant. Jimmy’s feet were just staggering when he entered the parking. Tara was clinging to him as they walked towards his car. Suddenly a man emerged from the dark and pulled out a revolver in his hand and shot without any warning. First bullet burst opened his chest and second smashed his face. Tara screamed uncontrollably, the man had disappeared into the dark.

June 28^th, Will City

Being the shooter of Moosa gang Billa had acquired wealth beyond his expectations. He had to kill just a few clods, who dared to defy Moosa every once in a while, rest of the time he was free to use his time as he wanted.

Today he was on a strange mission. He had to whack famous crime writer Deepak Soni, who denied to pay extortion money to his boss, which is called safety money in Will City underworld. Deepak Soni’s books were selling very well and recently one of his novels was bought by a Bollywood producer to make a big-budget movie based on the novel. Rumours were that Soni was paid rupees 25 Crore for his novel and Moosa wanted his share but Soni ignored him. Finally, the contract to kill Soni was given to Billa.

Billa was on Soni’s trail for a few days. Soni was an amorous man and was cheating his wife regularly. For this purpose, he has made a Villa in the outskirt of Will City. Billa knew nowadays he’s having fun with a new girl, who was hoping that Soni will introduce her to any Bollywood director. And this time he was in the Villa with that girl. Billa hates publicity, so he likes doing his killing job quietly. He waited for the girl to come out of the Villa, she came out after three hours and after fifteen minutes Soni also came out. Billa just came out of his car and fired three perfect shots in his chest. Bewildered Soni fell on the ground with a muffled cry and was dead.

Billa saw him falling dead and he rushed towards his car. Suddenly a fast-moving car emerged on the road and hit him. Billa had been in the air just for a few seconds, his legs were broken. When he fell on the ground, he was half-conscious. He tried to open his eyes, he saw a bearded man standing on the road with a revolver in his right hand. He slowly raised his revolver and a bullet smashed half-conscious Billa’s face.

June 30^th, Ontario, Canada

Simar being a skinny Indian girl was no match for burly Daljeet Singh. She was crushed under his heavy bulk for the last fifteen minutes and praying to him to get off her. He slapped her several times before getting off her.

“Idiot, I want to make you my wife. You’ll have to bear it all with me.” Snarled Daljeet.

Simar was sent with him after the brief ceremony of engagement in Patiala. His father wanted him to marry a girl from a traditional Indian family. Daljeet agreed just for fun’s sake, he wanted to taste a traditional Indian virgin girl. Simar’s dreams were broken when she saw that Daljeet was a playboy and he was sleeping with several girls and had no interest in marriage.

Daljeet put on his clothes and slapped Simar hard and came out of his room. It was already dark outside and raining a little. Daljeet came out reluctantly and a shower of rain wet his face and clothes. He was amazed to see a red laser light flickering around him. Finally, it fixed on his chest. The next moment he felt a severe pain in his chest and a lot of blood oozed out of the tiny hole made in his chest. He fell down on the ground, his eyes were open, but there was no life in them. A man in shadow emerged from the orchard and walked towards a waiting car and fled.

Frankfurt, Germany

Juhi looked at her husband Prashant and six-month-old daughter Moksha, who was sleeping peacefully in the bed. Prashant came to visit her from Berlin on the weekend.

She made some tea for her and pondered over her past life which was almost devastated by five goons. She could never forget that fateful evening in Will City when five goons dragged her from her scooty in their car and took her to River Kali Valley's wilderness and raped her.

Her father whom she thought a coward did everything to get her through all the three stages of Civil Services Exam. She qualified all the three stages of the exam; pre, main and interview, due to her high ranks she was allotted IFS (Indian Foreign Services). Her father was the happiest man on earth that day.

The first three months training as Foreign Service Probationer/ Officer Trainee at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussorie. Later, at Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi, On the job training at the Ministry of External Affairs for a period of six months and so on.

During this training period, she came across Prashant who was one year senior to her in this training. They courted for one year and finally, they decided to marry with their parents' consent. After the completion of his training, Prashant was posted at the Embassy Of India in Germany as Second Secretary in Administrative Wing. Later Juhi was also posted as Second Secretary Culture at Indian Consulate in Frankfurt. Prashant's father who holds a key post in the Ministry Of External Affairs, managed her posting in Germany.

She looked at her husband and daughter who were sleeping peacefully. Her father's decision had changed her life. If he had opted for the retaliation they would have died long ago. She knew how powerful people and goons kill the people who file a case against them. Most of the time either the victims withdraw the case or get killed. First of all, she thought that her father was a coward, but he was the bravest man who endured all insults but never budge from his decision to make her something in her life. But shouldn’t those culprits be punished?

July 13th, New Delhi

Rahul Vashisth, the MLA from South Delhi looked at Nisha, IPS, who was lying naked next to him. She knew Rahul was the MLA of the ruling party and she’ll have no problem in acquiring ACP South Delhi post.

Rahul lit a cigarette. Sumit, Billa, Daljeet and Jimmy were dead. He was surprised at the murder of Sumit but when Jimmy and Billa were killed, he was sure that these murders have a connection with that Juhi girl, whom they raped. He tried to locate her and her lunatic father. But they have disappeared from Will City.

Suddenly Rahul’s phone vibrates, Dhama number was flashing on the screen. The Ex-Cop Dhama, who was running a private detective agency in South Delhi was tracing both of the vanished daughter and father.

“Yes, Dhama.”

“I’ve traced him.”

“Come to PWD rest house at Sonipat road, I’m waiting for you.” Said Rahul.

He looked at Nisha lustfully, controlled himself and slapped her beautiful back and said, “Madam, wake up. Time to go.”

Nisha looked at him with her sleepy eyes and stretched her body sensuously.

“You will be next ACP, South Delhi soon, just keep visiting me.”

“Sure, I’ll.” Said she and started putting her uniform on and left the room after glancing meaningfully at Rahul.

Music Of Life

When Dhama and Rahul entered the deserted house near Narela, it was already dark and the sky was full of dark clouds.

“Are you sure, he lives here?”

“Yes…”

Rahul thumped his pant’s pocket to check his mouser gun.

“I’ll not go inside.” Said Dhama.

“You coward…”

“I’m not a coward, my work is to investigate; not to kill people. I don’t want to accompany you.” Said Dhama.

“Okay, you can go now.” Said Rahul with a smile.

Dhama looked at him and turned to go back, but he heard the sound of a click behind him. When he turned, he saw Rahul had withdrawn his gun and was smiling at him.

Dharma reached for his revolver in his belt, but Rahul was quicker, he fired swiftly. The bullet tore Dhama’s chest and he fell like a big tree.

Rahul turned to move ahead, but he was surprised to see that the professor was standing in the alley with a revolver in his hand. Both of them fired simultaneously, Rahul took the bullet in his shoulder whereas his bullet made a hole in professor's belly, which was bleeding badly and making smudges on the dirty floor. The professor looked at him and fell down.

Rahul's face was pale due to pain and loss of blood. He took all the courage and went straight to the professor with his gun in his hand.

He looked at the face of the professor, the pain was apparent on it.

Rahul smiled at his condition and said, “Killed all my friends who enjoyed the brief company of your sensual daughter, wish we could have done it again but you fled with her from the city.”

He saw the helpless professor who has been holding his belly and his hands were full of blood. Rahul raised his gun and aimed professor’s face, but the professor's hand moved like an electric bolt with the revolver and fired.

Cold Magnum’s big bullet blew Rahul face, he fell on the professor. The professor took a deep breath and kicked Rahul’s body away from him.

The professor got up and stuffed a handkerchief in his belly’s bullet hole. He mustered all his courage and stood. He staggered a little and started walking towards his hidden car. He cast a last glance at the dead bodies of Delhi MLA and his henchman. The other man lying dead has been on his trail for a few days, he misled him to this deserted house, which he pretended to be his house. All the rapists have died, they must have been killed at the very time, but his responsibility towards Juhi tied his hands, otherwise, he wanted to kill them in the court, who pronounced them innocent and freed them to rape other girls. He entered his car slowly, the blood had stopped. He started his car and the radio in the car started playing an unknown song, unknown music, the music of life.

Juggler’s Den Mauritius

Juggler knew someone out of the killed rapists’ fathers will approach him for killing Professor. There was such an email from Canada, and the sender wanted Professor dead at any rate. Juggler being a contract killer demanded an outrageous sum for this hit. The sum was approved and wired in Juggler’s Kayman bank account. He called up his travel agent to book a seat in business class for him to go to India to hunt down that killer professor.