The Day The State Split Asunder - 47

The following morning at around 11:30A.M, the Anti Corruption Bureau(ACB) sleuths raided Erragadda Mental Institute superintendent Dr.MadhuSudhan's house. Led by ACB commissioner Thakur, the officials combed the entire house and unearthed several gold and silver ornaments along with a dozen promissory notes, investment bonds, three four-wheelers all SUV'S and five two-wheelers. In addition to all the above he even owned a wine shop and a restaurant on Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway. 

Apart from being a government employee he was also running two private clinics in Hyderabad in the name of his relatives and what surprised them more is the registration certificates of more than one hundred medical stores registered under different names.

One of the officers walked into MadhuSudhan's bedroom and recovered a briefcase in the closet. When they opened it, they found inside several bundles of one thousand rupee notes and the total sum amounted to five crores. 

Within no time the reporters from all news channels including HBN-7 rushed to MadhuSudhan's home and started airing the visuals on the television. 

Dr. MadhuSudhan who was unprepared for such a raid felt as if earth's gravity were growing stronger by the second, trying to drag him down into the underworld darkness. He started his career as a psychiatrist and has been working at Erragadda Mental Institute for over twenty years. Slowly as the years passed he got promoted as the superintendent of the institute and today his beautiful career has come to a halt. He is no more than a criminal in the eyes of law.  

'Dr. MadhuSudhan what is this?' Thakur placed the briefcase in front of Dr.MadhuSudhan who is seated on his couch in his home. 'Who gave you this amount?'

'This is not mine! My friend just informed me to keep this amount with me,' When he spoke, his tone was emotionless, an attempt to give the impression that he is innocent. 

'What is the name of your friend?' Thakur demanded.

'His name is...' MadhuSudhan stammered for a moment. 'Ra! Raju!'

Thakur sensed the nervousness in his tone. 'I see! So you call your friend Rajath with the nickname Raju. Wonderful! Looks like you two guys have developed a very good bonding! Can you let me know the reason why Rajath alias Raju has trusted the amount with you instead of depositing it in a bank?'

A searing bolt of pain traveled directly to MadhuSudhan's head and his heart started accelerating faster. 'What-What are you talking about? I don't understand what you are saying!'

Thakur asked one of his officials beside to give him the photographs that were given by Swamiji. He took it from him and gave it to MadhuSudhan. 

'The person in the photograph along with you is Mr.Rajath. This photograph has been taken from a high-resolution camera. Your friend Rajath has the same kind of briefcase and these are not any morphed photographs,' Thakur said to MadhuSudhan.

MadhuSudhan fell silent, scanning the photographs in horror. He felt perspiration rising on his forehead as there's no way left for him to bypass. 

'Who took these photographs?' MadhuSudhan asked, exchanging a nervous look with Thakur.

'That's none of your business Dr.MadhuSudhan! Tell me why did Rajath give you that amount and why did he give you this amount?' Thakur demanded.

Dr.MadhuSudhan wore a dumb look on his face and didn't answer anything to his question. MadhuSudhan's wife broke into tears looking at the state of her husband. She was ignorant of all these illegal transactions made by him. 

'Dr.MadhuSudhan all these assets are disproportionate to your sources of income. We are arresting you!' Thakur said and ordered his subordinates to take Dr.MadhuSudhan into his custody.

The officials took all the evidence including the laptop, briefcase and the registration certificates of pharmacy stores along with them.

At Madhapur Police Station Inspector Arjun and Imtiaz were discussing about the entire sequence of events for one more time pertaining to Suresh's murder case. They couldn't discern anything new from the video footage reported by Suresh. Once again they are back to square one. 

'Imtiaz, after October 10th, Suresh hasn't reported anything. What he has been doing from October 11th until his death?' Inspector Arjun asked.

'Sir, according to the information that I got from Suresh's technical lead Chary, from the next day, there were no more news reports from Suresh. And RadhaKrishna as usual didn't tell me anything new this time,' Inspector Imtiaz said.

'He will not speak anything. It's already been a month and we still couldn't gather any clues. Suresh has been spying upon Dhyaneshwar and Rajath. Either one of them is the murderer, but we don't have any concrete evidence which can confirm their involvement. This case has become a pain in our neck,' Arjun sighed in exasperation. 'And did you verify his bank account statements?'

'I verified all his bank accounts sir. On November 29th, he deposited five lakh rupees into his account. The following day, he transferred that amount to his father's bank account. Not sure how he got that five lakhs?' 

'I am not understanding what to do. I will go and meet the commissioner this afternoon. Let's take his assistance.' 

Later the conversation drifted towards other cases. After having his lunch, he was getting ready with the file containing Suresh's investigation report. As he was about to begin to the commissioners office, the telephone on his desk applied brakes to his flight.

'Hello, Madhapur Police Station. This is inspector Arjun online. How can I help you?' Arjun said as soon as he picked up the receiver.

'Mr.Arjun I am Nagaraju from ACB office. Commissioner Thakur wants to meet you.'

'Regarding?' Arjun felt a pang in his heart as for why the anti corruption commissioner asked to meet him.

'This morning we arrested Erragadda Mental Institute Superintendent Dr.MadhuSudhan, and Thakur sir wants to discuss it with you.'

'I will be there in thirty minutes,' Arjun said and he put down the receiver. He wore a bemused look on his face.

'What happened sir?' Imtiaz asked.

'The ACB officials are saying they have arrested the Erragadda Mental Institute superintendent Dr. MadhuSudhan. I got a call from the ACB office and they told me that Mr.Thakur wants to meet me. I don't understand what we got to do with Dr.MadhuSudhan and moreover Erragadda area is not even under our jurisdiction.'

'Sir, this MadhuSudhan is present in the video documentary taken by Suresh.'

'Ah Yes!' Arjun exclaimed.

'Sir, I feel that he is calling you there for some purpose.'

'I will leave now. After meeting Thakur, I will go and meet our commissioner P V Anand.'

'Ok Sir!'

Arjun picked up the file and climbed into the toyota qualis police vehicle. He reached the Anti Corruption Bureau office and straight away headed into Mr.Thakur's cabin present on the second floor.  

'Sir, Is it you?' Arjun saluted Thakur with a surprised look on his face. When Arjun was Sub-Inspector of Vijayawada Two Town Police Station, Thakur was the Deputy Commissioner of Police for that jurisdiction at that time. 

'Hello Mr.Arjun. It has been a long time,' Thakur was equally surprised to see Arjun. 'Please take your seat. I didn't know that you have been working here in Hyderabad. You voluntarily chose to serve in Greyhounds forces and finally you returned back to your parent organization.'

'Of course sir, you know everything,' Arjun said as he sank in his seat, 'and your secretary didn't tell me your full name. All throughout the time I was thinking you are someone different.' 

'Anyways Arjun without beating around the bush, I will come straight to the topic. I hope you know that we have arrested Erragadda Mental Institute superintendent Dr.MadhuSudhan?' Thakur asked.

'I am aware of it,' Arjun said nodding his head.

'Arjun, the reason I asked you to come is because this is closely related to Suresh's murder case which is being dealt by you.'

'How did you get to know about this Suresh murder case sir?' Arjun asked, astonished.

'Yesterday an old man with the name Satynarayana Goswami came to my office and gave me these photographs,' Thakur took out the photographs from the drawer of his desk and placed it in front of Arjun. 

Satyanarayana Goswami this name sounds familiar... Arjun thought as he took the photographs into his hand.

'Now I remember who this Satyanarayana Goswami is. I heard this name from the HBN-7 Channel owner RadhaKrishna. But, I don't understand why he didn't approach us? What is their purpose behind approaching you instead of us? And how did they get these photographs?'

'Arjun, sometimes our standard operating procedures will not fetch the expected outcomes. Being a journalist, this Satyanarayana Goswami is a good logician. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence and he is very well aware of this logic. He has certainly done a good thing in sharing that information with us as we recovered many illegal assets of Dr.MadhuSudhan.'

'Sir, in what way MadhuSudhan is linked with Suresh? Has MadhuSudhan confessed anything in your investigation?'

'Mr.Arjun,' Thakur said, 'these photographs have been taken by the HBN-7 Channel journalist Suresh.'

'What!' Arjun's jaw dropped. He once again stared at the photographs with strained attention. 'It means MadhuSudhan is also involved in the murder of Suresh?'

'The chances cannot be ruled out. From our investigation we could confirm that he received an amount of five crore rupees from Rajath and he claims it was a gift. I can clearly say he is lying to protect Rajath but I can't say anything about his involvement in Suresh's murder as it is not in our scope.'

'Sir, can I have a look at the evidence that you acquired from his home?'

'Sure Arjun, go downstairs to the locker room. We have kept everything there.'

'Thank you sir, I will be back soon,' Arjun rose and walked downstairs making his way into the locker room where all the evidence was kept. 

He requested the incharge of the room to show him the evidence recovered in the raid. He looked at the briefcase and the documents. As he glanced through the one hundred registration certificates of Medical stores registered in different names something flickered in his mind. He has seen the names of these medical stores in Suresh's diary. He then raced upstairs to Mr.Thakur's cabin.

'Sir,' Arjun neared the edge of his desk. 'All those medical stores which were owned by Dr.MadhuSudhan were present in Suresh's notepad that we recovered at the crime scene.'

'Is it?'

'Yes sir. Can you please give me permission to interrogate him. I know that we are not supposed to do it unless you pass him to our custody but we are running out of time. By the time we get the permission, it easily consumes a day.'

'I am sorry Arjun. A rule is a rule. You don't have any right to interrogate him while he is in our custody. We completed all the procedures from our end. If you can file the petition for the custodial transition process from your commissioner to the ACB special court, we can manage to send him into your custody soon.'

'Ok sir! I will go and meet my commissioner now itself.' After saying that Arjun rose up, saluted Thakur and made a gentle exit from the office. 

In no time he reached the commissioner's office and discussed the entire sequence of events that incurred so far. Based on the photographs and the evidence found at the crime scene, the commissioner drafted a petition to the ACB special court requesting Dr.MadhuSudhan to be handed over to their custody citing his involvement in Suresh's murder.

'Arjun, it will easily take one more day to have Dr.MadhuSudhan into our custody. What I want you to do meanwhile is put an eye on Rajath and Dhyaneshwar. If they are involved in the crime, they will definitely make an attempt to escape,' said commissioner Anand.

 

'Sure sir. The news of MadhuSudhan's arrest by ACB is already broadcasted by the media. I think they would have got to know about it by now.'

'Dhyaneshwar is the chairman of Godavac Pharma right?'

'No sir, six months ago he handed over the charges to his son Rajath.'  

'Tomorrow once after we have MadhuSudhan into our custody we will try to pull out all the details from him. If we can get the slightest clue that Rajath is involved in Suresh's murder, we are going to arrest him.'

The day has come to an end. Inside of Swamiji's house, Karthik felt a fresh wave of enthusiasm surging through his body. He was enthralled with thd way in which the event unfolded.

'Uncle! The ACB officials have raided Dr.MadhuSudhan's office and they even took him into custody,' Karthik said to Swamiji. 'Now, what's next?'

'Next, Dr.MadhuSudhan will be handed over to the police custody,' Swamiji said. 'Then the police will interrogate him about his involvement in Suresh's murder.'

'My question is how will the police get to know about it?'

'Mr.Thakur will inform them. He understood my logic and based on the evidence that we have submitted, he performed the raid and it's confirmed that MadhuSudhan received a large sum of money from Rajath. The police are on hunt to find the murderer of Suresh. Thakur being an IPS officer is an expert in dealing with cases like these. He will definitely loop the information to Arjun.'

'Uncle, from outside you look so innocent, but inside-'

'I appear cunning right?'

'No! I don't mean that.'

'I don't feel anything bad about it. But one thing I am sure. This MadhuSudhan and Rajath might have committed a scandal. If once that scandal is out, then Rajath will soon be behind the bars.'

'Will Rajath get arrested?'

'Just wait and see dear! The picture will be amazing from now on! Just enjoy the show! And tomorrow you should go and meet Dr. Ranga.'

'Who is this Ranga?'

'Ranga is the doctor who performed post-mortem on Akella Raghavendra and certified that his death was just a mere accident. If you can succeed in making him confess, think that our mission is almost done. Can I trust this task to you?'

'Don't worry uncle! Tomorrow I will not step into this house unless I get the information from him. This is my promise.'

To be continued...