The Day The State Split Asunder - 28

Suresh Bhadri, a journalist working at channel HBN-7 is very happy today for having performed the first sting operation in his career delegated by the CEO of the channel, RadhaKrishna.

His modest double bedroom flat in an apartment located at Madhapur in Hyderabad is deathly quiet at this late-night hour, except for the sound of the ceiling fan. He loved the silence. It allowed him to immerse himself in his work.

Just a year short of thirty his outward appearance was that of an unfashionable one with dull Kurta pyjama clothes, uncombed hair, and shirt pockets stuffed with a variety of pens and pocket-size notepads. His face was blemished with mild eruptions of acne and his hygiene left a lot to be desired. But grooming, bathing and dressing were completely inconsequential in his world.

He stays alone and his living space is so messy, it didn't look like a home at all.

He connected the pen camera to his laptop through an external USB connector and began transferring the video. He picked up his mobile and dialled the number of Radhakrishna.

"Hello Sir, I am sorry for calling you late at night," Suresh said.

"Hello Suresh!" said Radhakrishna, "I have been trying to reach you for two days. Where have you been? I was worried about you."

"Sir, I got to know many things about Dhyaneshwar and his son. I will meet you personally tomorrow."

"I am so sorry, tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Mumbai. I have a conference to attend, I can't come for the next two days. Why don't you tell it now?"

"Sir it can't be explained on mobile. There are many big shots behind. I can't say how much I risked in this mission. But sir, I need to tell you one thing. People like Dhyaneshwar should be executed publicly. His son is not lesser than him."

"Suresh, I will be leaving for Mumbai tomorrow at 10 AM. I won't be available for the next two days. Can you manage to come to the office at six in the morning?" Radhakrishna said.

"Yes sir," Suresh said, and he disconnected the call.

Later, he picked up his diary and started writing important information into it. While he was busy writing, someone outside started pressing the doorbell of his flat continuously.

He swiftly rushed towards the door and opened it. A man with a shadow taller than him with his face completely wrapped with a black cloth around his face got into his house and immediately closed the door behind. No sound emerged from Suresh's throat as the intruder had tightly clamped a chloroform-soaked handkerchief over his nose and mouth.

Paralysed with fear, Suresh picked up a flower vase from the shelf and struggled to strike him, but the chloroform already took control over him.

The vase fell crashing to the ground and suddenly his house went completely black. The intruder took the knife from his pocket and slit Suresh's throat. Blood started spurting out from his neck and in fifteen seconds he died.

The intruder started searching Suresh's pockets. There's nothing except mobile and few pocket-sized notepads. He switched off the mobile and put it inside his pocket. Later, he switched on the flashlight on his mobile, got into the bedroom, opened all the closets. There were a few photographs. He picked up all the photographs and later walked towards the laptop. He removed all the wires connected to it but failed to notice the pen camera USB stick as it was connected through an external USB cord. Carrying the laptop, he silently slipped out of the room and disappeared.

The following morning, the secretary of the apartment Ramesh was pressing the doorbell continuously but Suresh didn't open. While in that process, he looked down upon the floor and happened to see a few blood drops scattered on the white marbled floor.

The mere sight of it scared the living daylights out of him. With a trembling hand, he pushed the door, and to his surprise, the door was opened. He walked in and saw Suresh's body completely drenched in blood.

He ran and called the people residing in the nearby flats. In a minute a crowd of fifty gathered at his home. Ramesh called the Madhapur police station and in a span of fifteen minutes, Circle Inspector Arjun Reddy along with Sub Inspector Imtiaz Ahmed and four constables arrived at the spot.

"Who is Ramesh?" Inspector Arjun Reddy said in a rough tone.

"Sir I-I am..." Ramesh came forward, extending a hand. Arjun ignored it.

"All of you please go outside," said Inspector Imtiaz. "Mr Ramesh, At what time did you come here?"

"At seven sir," Ramesh replied. "Why did you come here?"

"Sir, actually I came here to collect the maintenance amount. Suresh didn't pay for three months. I just came here to collect only that," his voice was quivering.

"Imtiaz," Arjun said, "Search every corner of this house. We will get something."

"Yes sir!" said Imtiaz.

One of the constables took pictures of the dead body on his phone. Inspector Imtiaz walked up to the body making sure that he didn't step on the puddle of blood, and examined Suresh's neck.

"Sir, his throat was cut, this is a clear murder," said Inspector Imtiaz.

"Where is the watchman?" A gust of cold air from the bedroom accompanied his words. Everyone fell silent. The watchman Chary came forward, folding his hands.

"How did this happen?" Arjun shouted at Chary.

"No idea sir," replied Chary, struck with fear.

"Did you see anyone coming in?"

"Nobody sir, I was on duty throughout the night."

"Had you slept in between your duty?"

"No, sir, I was on duty. Awake," Chary said. His body seemed to shrink, and not because of the cold.

"If you are awake then how the assailant came here and killed this person," Arjun barked at him.

"All of you please be outside," Imtiaz said and walked around the room. The constables dispersed the crowd.

"Sir," said inspector Imtiaz, "Please come to the bedroom."

Imtiaz and Arjun got into the bedroom. Imtiaz picked up a couple of notebooks, the pen camera USB stick.

Arjun looked at the notebook and happened to see a long list of pharmaceutical stores along with addresses.

"What is this long list of pharmaceutical stores? What is this all about?" Arjun said as he was leafing through the list.

"Sir, there are also few medicines on the desk," said Imtiaz.

"What work does Suresh do?" said Arjun.

"Sir, the secretary of this apartment has informed me that he works as a crime reporter at channel HBN-7. And we couldn't find his mobile. There is a laptop charger but there's no laptop. I found this pen camera USB stick attached to the USB connector," he put forward the USB stick of the camera. " This is the only clue we have as of now."

"Imtiaz, one clue is more than enough to land us at the doorstep of criminals. No matter how clever the criminal maybe, he will leave us a clue behind."

"But sir, we don't have a mobile."

"So what, at least one of the members of the apartment would be having his mobile number. Take the number and send it to the control room. And also call the ambulance and shift the body to Gandhi hospital for autopsy. Let us request the call data once after the autopsy is done."

"Yes sir," replied Imtiaz, and he began checking the other closets in the room. He found the cuttings of a few newspapers. He zipped it safely in a plastic pouch.

Thirty minutes later the ambulance arrived. The body has been taken to the Gandhi hospital for postmortem. Arjun has put a constable on duty outside of Suresh's flat to ensure no one tampers the crime scene area.

After one hour of intense scrutiny around the flat, Arjun and Imtiaz arrived at the discussion room in Madhapur Police Station with all the evidence they had collected. Imtiaz placed the photographs of the dead body on the table.

"Sir, without autopsy report we can straightaway confirm that this is a murder. Why don't we ask the control room to send us the call data?" said Imtiaz.

"Unless and until we don't get the autopsy report we cannot begin the investigation," Arjun said. "And forgot to ask you, what is the update about Sravani's missing case?"

"Yes sir, we have some information about her. She studied in Guntur, till intermediate. After that, she came to Hyderabad to study B.Tech at JNTU, Hyderabad. And later she met Raghu on social media, started chatting and fell in love with him. They eloped from the house along with the gold and cash of two lakh rupees."

"What is happening to the girls of this generation? They always fall for bad guys, creating unnecessary tensions for us. Truly Imtiaz, I got fed up with this job. If I get the opportunity I would like to switch back to the Greyhounds unit. I am missing those adventures. Anyways the past is past, Did you trace Raghu?"

"Yes sir, the last location of the mobile was found at Zaheerabad. ASI Narsingh already began his chase."

"Good! We need to catch him soon."

"Sir, Why don't we see what is present inside of the pen camera we recovered at the scene."

"Yes! Put it!" said Arjun.

Imtiaz connected the camera to the system. There is one video file. He played it. It showed two people, one foreign national, discussing inside a hotel room.

"Take screenshots of these two," Arjun said to Imtiaz.

Imtiaz paused the video, zoomed in onto their faces, and took two screenshots. He forwarded it further. At the end of the minute. Imtiaz spotted a hand, removing the camera and the video ended.

"Sir, I think this is a planned one? The camera was purposefully placed so that they could capture it."

"What is specific in this video? There is no audio in this and who is that foreign national?" Arjun said. "Can you try zooming the hand who removed the camera?"

Imtiaz zoomed the hand. "Sir this person cannot be Suresh. Are you able to see the 'om' tattoo?"

"Yes Imtiaz, good observation. There are no tattoos on Suresh's body anywhere. Then what is this lengthy list," Arjun picked up the notepad. "What is this long list of medical stores? It is almost covering every district of Andhra Pradesh."

Arjun began counting and it tolled at one hundred and nineteen.

"I think there is an invisible link connecting all these events. I feel this is not going to stop here. See this list, it has eleven districts of our state, five in Telangana, all four of Rayalaseema, and two from northern Andhra Pradesh. This Suresh wanted to bring out a big scandal into the spotlight. But what is that?"

The telephone on the desk started ringing. Arjun picked up the receiver.

"Hello! this is inspector Arjun Reddy," Arjun said.

"Hello sir, I am Dr Parthasarathi from Gandhi Hospital. The autopsy report is done."

"Good job, thank you, doctor. We will come and collect it," Arjun disconnected the call.

"Imtiaz, go and collect the postmortem report and carry out the other formalities."

"Yes, sir," Imtiaz said.

To be continued...