THE LAST RIDE

NOTE: This story is based on Author’s fiction. It doesn’t apply to any historical references or real-life incidents.

AUGUST 28, 2024

BESA CHOWK, NAGPUR CITY, MAHARASHTRA

In a local area in Maharashtra, the time was nearing 7.30 p.m. 27-year old Roshini Thackeray was living in an apartment. She got ready like going out and put her handbag in the shoulder. Her roommate was sitting in the sofa and watching TV. She looked at Roshini and asked: “Hey Roshini. Whether you will come home or will stay there?”

For that Roshini said: “I will return at night.” She has also taken the room key. She asked her to lock the door and sleep and left from there. Roshini’s roommate started to cook and eat. After speaking with her parents for a while she started to watch TV again. When she was watching TV she felt sleepy. She took the phone and looked at the time. The time was nearing 10:30 p.m.

Roshini didn’t come yet. To ask her when she will come, she started calling her mobile number. But Roshini hung up the call. She texted that she’s watching movie with a friend in a theater. She’s going to stay with her for the night. She texted that she will come home the next morning. Seeing this Roshini’s roommate replied okay and locked the room. She went for sleep.

She woke up the next morning and got ready for work. Again at 8:00 a.m., she called Roshini again. For the next 3 hours she called her around 10 times. But Roshini didn’t attend any of the calls. 

Roshini’s roommate started to fear what happened to her. She called her parents to tell about this. Hearing what Roshini’s roommate said, her parents and brother came to Nagpur in panic. They went to a police station in Beltarodi and registered a missing complaint about Roshini.

The police got the complaint and called Roshini’s mobile number. But since there was no response, “Maybe she fell in love with someone and scared of telling to her parents, so she could have went to somewhere?” Like this with doubt they started asking question.

For that her parents said, “No sir. There is nothing like that. If there is anything like that she will definitely tell us.” Since in 2019, Roshini got married and ended in divorce. After that, if she was with her parents she might be a burden to them. To reduce their burden, she came to Nagpur and stayed in a room to work in a car showroom. 

Roshini started coming out of the sadness that her first marriage ended in divorce and in a situation where a lot of months passed, Roshini’s parents asked her to get married again. But she said: “I doesn’t need a marriage dad. I wish to be like this.”

Roshini’s parents thought of not compelling her at the moment. But as the days passed, they said to her: “Don’t you need a partner to look after you after us, ma?” They started to cry to Roshini. They further told her, “Even if you love someone, it’s okay for us.”

But Roshini said: “I doesn’t love anyone.” For her parent’s sake she applied in a matrimonial site. Roshini’s parents mentioned this and said to the police: “She will definitely tell us if she had loved someone, sir.”

With tears and cry, Roshini’s parents asked the police to find what happened to their daughter. Hearing this the police accepted the complaint and collected the details of who called Roshini at last. 

When the police looked, on the night of August 28, from her roommate and an unknown number, they came to know that Roshini received a call. The police called the unknown number. A lady attended the call, said: “Sir. It’s my son Adhithya Wankhede’s number. We admitted him in the hospital now because of sudden high BP.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know sir. We have admitted him in Nagpur Army hospital for treatment.” She said to the police.

The police went to the hospital and investigated 29-years old Adhithya. At first knowing that Roshini went missing he was very shocked. After that he started telling the reason for his call to Roshini. 

Adhithya was working in Nagaland Army camp as a soldier. He first met Roshini at the matrimonial site. After that when he called and spoke with her, she liked him. But knowing this Adhithya’s parents strictly said that they won’t accept a divorced girl as their daughter-in-law. After telling this Adhithya asked sorry to Roshini. But she took it casually saying that all parents will react like this. She said that they will be good friends hereafter. After that they were in contact through mobile.

“That’s why I called Roshini that night, sir. There is another important reason for me to call her that day sir. To invite her to my engagement I called Roshini that day.” Adhithya said. 

Knowing this police tracked Roshini’s mobile number. However, the signal started to show up in different districts of Maharashtra. After that it showed up in different districts of Telangana. Seeing this police confirmed that her mobile signal was in travel. 

“If Roshini didn’t want to speak with anyone, why she didn’t switch off her mobile phone?” The police suspected. At the time when they had a doubt, her number started to travel towards the northeast direction. In the next few hours the number was switched off. Roshini will stop somewhere in her travel and the police thought of tracing her at that time. But they were disappointed. 

The police again started to watch whether Roshini’s number is switched on again. When the police were tracing Roshini on one side, they started investigating her roommate on other side. She said to the police, “Sir. She said she was going to meet a college friend. But I don’t know who was that friend and where he is.”

“Okay. She is saying like this.” The police thought whether they could get any leads from her colleagues. They started investigating in the showroom where Roshini was working. But, they said that they didn’t even know that she was going to meet her friend. 

That night, the police checked where her mobile was active at last. They came to know that it was active in Wardha road highway. At that time the signal of a suspect in the police list, was exactly active on the same place. That person is none other than, Adhithya Wankhede. 

Exactly one month after the incident on October 20, 2024, the police went to Adhithya’s house and arrested him. When they took him into custody and investigated him, he started to confess what happened that day.

Adhithya was speaking friendly with Roshini. But, he didn’t speak to her friendly. He was speaking lovely to her. Adhithya and Roshini were in love with each other. But since her previous marriage life didn’t go well, until Adhithya’s parents accept for their marriage, Roshini decided not to tell anyone about their love. She decided to not even tell her parents.

Whenever Adhithya came in leave to Nagpur, Roshini said a reason to her roommate, she started to go out with him. She was with him like a wife without getting married. But in such a situation Adhithya’s parents selected him a bride. They also informed him about this. At that time, he was in Nagaland. 

Hearing this Adhithya was shocked and said about his love to Roshini. But his parents asked how he could think that they will accept a divorced girl as their in-law. They further said to him that the bride they selected was from a rich background. Adhithya’s parents sent the bride’s photo and phone number to him.

Initially Adhithya thought of convincing his parents. But after seeing the photo of the bride which his parents sent, he was mesmerized by her beauty. When he started speaking with her he surrendered to her. 

But Roshini didn’t know that Adhithya was surrendered to another girl. She spoke to him with full of love as usual. At first Roshini’s words and voice were like honey to Adhithya. But now it became torture. Whenever Roshini called, he started avoiding her saying that he is in work and he will call later. 

Since Adhithya was speaking to his bride, his number was always engaged. It made Roshini sad. Since, she was thinking that he was going to marry her. Even though Roshini endured it for a while, at one stage she called one Adhithya’s best friend and said about it.

At that time Adhithya’s friend felt pity on her. He said about his marriage preparation. He further told her that Adhithya was not in Nagaland with another shocking news that he was in Nagpur. Hearing this like a water breaking out of the dam, she started to be angry on Adhithya. With the same anger she called Adhithya and scolded him.

Now Adhithya knows that he got caught. He started to convince Roshini. He said: “My parents are not accepting to marry a divorced girl, Roshini. I was thinking how to console them. So, I couldn’t talk properly with you pa. My parents didn’t listen to me despite my convincing words. So I came to Nagpur to console them.” 

Adhithya said to Roshini: “You will be sad if you came to know about this marriage preparation. I thought of solving this problem by myself without your knowledge. So I didn’t say anything to you.” Like this he convinced her. 

Roshini was thinking whether to believe him or not. She took a deep breath and warned Adhithya by saying, “I will believe what you say, Adhithya. But if you try to cheat me, definitely I won’t let you go. I will give a police complaint on you.” Like this, she warned him.

Hearing this Adhithya was shaken and said, “Don’t do anything like that. You can believe me. Definitely I will convince my parents and call you.” Now since he tried so hard, Roshini became calm and asked him to tell a good news soon. She hung up the call.

Adhithya was silent till now. When Roshini said that she will give a police complaint, he started to think in anger that she will put him in jail. He decided to kill her. 

Adhithya made a plan now. To execute it, the next morning of August 28, he called Roshini and said, “Yesterday I explained a lot to you, Roshini. But at last I didn’t even say a sorry. It made me sad. That’s why I called you now. So sorry Roshini.” Like this he spoke in an apologetic tone.

Even though Roshini was angry on Adhithya, she was in love with him. Like an ice cube in the sunlight her heart started to melt for his words. She said, “It’s okay. Don’t hide anything from me hereafter.”

Adhithya understood that Roshini was convinced. He said: “I want to see you Rosy.” He said it in a romantic tone. Roshini doesn’t know that Adhithya is acting.  She felt like meeting him and said okay. 

Roshini got ready to go to a hotel in Wardha road. After she went there she ate with Adhithya and as usual they came to a jolly mode. Adhithya noticed this. After they ate and sat in the car, he asked Roshini whether they could go for a small ride. Since she also felt like being with Adhithya, she immediately said okay.

Now the car started to travel in Wardha highways. But Roshini doesn’t know that it was her last ride. While going in the car she drank a cool drink which was given by Adhithya. But in a few minutes after drinking that she started sleeping. Since sleeping pills were mixed to the cool drinks Roshini started to sleep. After that while driving the car, Adhithya angrily looked at Roshini. Adhithya was driving the car while drinking. He went in a mud road near the highway. 

After going for a while he stopped the car in an isolated place and brought Roshini outside the car. He made her lie on the ground. Now he brought a rope and a shovel from the car dickey. In the headlight flash of the car he started to dug a pit. 

While digging Roshini received a call from her roommate. But Adhithya hung the call and like Roshini was texting, he texted: “I am watching a movie in a theater. I won’t come today.” After he dug the pit, with that rope he started strangling Roshini. In that she started to struggle and died in a few minutes. After that Adhithya buried her body and handbag in that pit. 

Now Adhithya left in his car and near a toll gate he saw a lorry in halt. Seeing this he stopped his car and went near that lorry. He threw Roshini’s phone above that lorry without anyone noticing and left from there now.

While hearing this, you might feel like you have watched this somewhere. It’s the same scene from Drishyam and Papanasam movie. Inspired by that movie Adhithya made this plan. After doing all this, to prevent the police from suspecting him, he was admitted in the hospital and to the police who visited him, he made a story that he and Roshini were just friends. 

After Adhithya’s confession the police recovered Roshini’s body from the place he said. Since it’s been a month after the incident, the body was decomposed. With DNA test they confirmed that it was Roshini. Finally in Chhattisgarh, from a lorry driver the police officers recovered her cell phone. The driver took the mobile phone from the lorry’s top, threw the SIM card. But he was using it with new SIM card. While tracking Roshini’s mobile phone number, the IMEI number was stored. 

Even though the lorry driver used another SIM the police recovered the phone from the driver using that. 

EPILOGUE

“This shouldn’t happen anymore. Seeing this, women should be safe. Even if it helped at least one of you and it saved your life, it will be very happy for me. The men who are seeing this without taking idiotic decisions, try to face the problem bravely and solve it. Even in this, Adhithya decided to kill her by fearing for the police. But now also he is in jail. So without deciding in anger, think and solve the problem. For doing such things he could have done a simple thing. If it’s okay that he didn’t like Roshini. He can’t be happy even if he marry her. So to his new bride, he could have made her understood that he was in such a situation. In this generation even though you are in a lot of relationship, a culture of taking it casually has come. In case if Roshini made a complaint he could have faced it legally and solved it. Like Vivek said in a movie, it was like “These guys doesn’t have any ideas.” 

So my beloved readers. What do you think about this story? Comment your opinions about how one could have escaped in this situation. Comment your opinion about how could one have avoided this type of situations.”