The Revenge Murders

The most powerful human emotion through the ages has been that of revenge. History is replete with cases where people have gone to any lengths to get their revenge from their targets for some past wrong. The emotion of revenge is so strong in some cultures and people that whole communities are slaughtered because of some past action. This is considered as payback and satisfaction is drawn collectively as a whole. Even Western culture has immortalized the concept of vengeance. In its iconic cult movie’ The Godfather’; when Marlon Brando, who is playing the role of the God Father says ‘Revenge is a dish, it tastes sweet when it is cold’. However, people forget that this revenge ‘psyche’ has a downside as well. Not only the intended victims but also the aggressors are affected by this. At times like this, the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi should be remembered: “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”. 

I have taken this strongest of the emotions of the human psyche to base my following story on.

 

 It was a time for one of the biggest festivals of Bengalis in India and fact all across the world. Durga Pujas, it comes in around the month of either late September or in October, depending on the calendar. It is time when Bengalis from walks of life start planning on their shopping and start deciding where all to go, which all places to visit etc. People start planning from the very beginning as a matter of fact and this is the time which also brings out the true colors of Bengali culture, tradition, lifestyle, etc. It also gives a wide range of opportunities for a wide range of workers like artisans, painters, musicians, artists of all sorts, etc. Visiting a stall during Durga Puja will take you into a completely another world; as you enter any place, the first thing that you will find is the art & architecture of the pandal (as it is in called in Bengali), then the most amazing thing you will ever see is the innovative and creative method used in creating the statue of Goddess Durga and Mahishasur, the demon king, whom the goddess is slaying. The other unique thing about Durga Puja is the variety of food joints one can find in each of these pandals and the equal number of people thronging each of these food joints. The richness, taste, and quality of some of the foods, especially are made in Bengali tradition are mind-blowing. It so happens that you might not even get a chance to check out a particular delicacy just because of the number of people in a stall.

 

 

Retired Head Constable Keshab Sen was an old man who was happily living with his family in Medinipur district of West Bengal. Despite being 65 years old, he still was very active even at this age and regularly went for morning & evening walks. He was an amiable fellow and well-liked by his neighbors and people, in general, whosoever came into contact with him. He liked to play with his grandchildren every morning before going for his walk, and while returning he used to bring sweets and chocolates for them. The same thing he used to do it in the evenings also, much to the dismay and protest from the rest of the family. But he never used to listen to them, and said, that being a child is the purest form of a human being. So he liked to indulge in their small childish demands.

 But no one knew that this benign and lovable old grandfather was hiding a dark secret; a secret, which no one except his except maybe his wife Paromita knew. It had been so long that now it was taking a toll on him. In fact for the past few days, just before the pujas, he had been acting a little bit absent-minded. When asked by his family members he just shrugged it off and said that I am growing old now. There was another aspect of his life which not even his wife of 40 years knew, that every Wednesday, he went on long trips to Calcutta and came back laden with gifts for everyone. When his wife and all the rest of the family members used to ask him that where does he go and from where does he buy all these gifts? he just plainly smiled at them and told them not to worry about such things as life is short and beautiful. This particular attitude used to put the family members in surprise and tension, but he never bothered to give a plausible explanation.

 

This particular day, the beginning of the pujas had also fallen on a Wednesday and Keshab had as usual gone to Calcutta and while on his return he had decided to visit the puja pandal nearest to his house. Here he while in the pandal met and greeted everyone with a smile and pat on the back but something was bothering him. This became more evident when someone asked him

 ‘What is the matter Keshabda, you look a bit tense?’ He replied ‘nothing at all, just a bit tired, that’s all’.

The reason for his consternation was a small piece of paper that he had found in his letterbox and that was why he had a very long and tense meeting with the people in Calcutta today. Anyways, as he was coming out of the pandal when somebody grabbed him from behind and put a hand on his mouth so that he could not shout and dragged him towards a dark alley nearby. Nobody had seen the situation unfolding right under their noses as everybody was busy in the pandal. Even Keshab before he could react to what was happening, a deep graveling voice came from behind him and said ‘remember 25?’, before he could say anything, the voice from behind took out a sharp serrated knife and stabbed him from behind and kept on stabbing him until Keshab Sen was almost lifeless. Then the killer came in front of him and saw the fear in his eyes from the mentioning of 25. Then the killer said that 

‘I wanted to see this fear in your eyes before you die’ and with that, he stabbed him once more viciously in his stomach and watched him fall lifeless onto the ground. Then the killer calmly wiped the bloodstains of his knife on Keshab Sen’s clothes and etched the number ‘25’ onto Keshab’s chest and calmly left the scene.

 

The whole thing had taken around 10-15 minutes but nobody saw or heard anything while this was going on. Meanwhile, Paromita, Keshab’s wife started to grow worried when it was past his time of normally returning home even on Wednesdays. When more than enough time had passed and there was still no sign of Keshab, his wife shared her fears and misgivings with her sons and daughter-in-law and daughter. Everyone tried to reassure her that he must have been stuck up somewhere and might be returning any time now. The problem was that Keshab Sen was never this late and he always used to inform his family if ever he was going to be late. 

 

This time even his phone was ringing unanswered. This further caused a reason for alarm in Paromita’s mind and she urged her sons to go look for their father. When the sons could not find their father anywhere, they started asking the neighbors and all the rest of the people that had they seen their father. Someone then said that he had seen Keshabda go towards the puja pandal carrying a lot of packets with him

 

The sons when searched the pandal did not find any sign of their father. Growing frantic with alarm, they called the police. The police also told them that it cannot do anything unless 24 hours had passed before they could even file a report. This further increased the family’s growing concern and with anxiety and trepidation, the whole family waited the night out for Keshab’s return. Paromita was naturally very distraught and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and it was with utmost difficulty the family had soothed and calmed her during the night.

 

It was sometime the next day when one of the neighbors came ashen-faced and asked them to come to the alley near the pandal. Seeing the neighbor’s face, Paromita could sense that something was amiss and she demanded to go along with her sons. Somehow the family managed to calm her down and when the sons went in the said alley, they got the biggest shock of their lives. They saw that their father had been murdered gruesomely and he was lying in a pool of blood. This was an immediate shock to them as they could not believe that their loving and kind father could die in such a horrible way. The police had already been informed and once they reached the murder spot, they took control of the crime scene. The first thing they did was to minimize the curious line of onlookers who had gathered there and then they asked for whether immediate family had been informed or not. When the two sons came forward, the inspector in charge Raman Chakravorty, after paying his condolences started questioning them about their father’s movements in the past few days, whether he had any enemies or not? was there anything suspicious in his behavior for the last few days etc. When the sons told the inspector about their father’s mysteries journeys to the city every Wednesday and bringing lots of gifts and sweets for the family, this aroused curiosity in the inspector’s mind. When did he ask them that whether they knew as to where did he go? and whom did he meet, and in particular why every Wednesday? the sons had no answers to these questions. 

 

Inspector Raman was the kind of police officer who was kind of laid back sometimes but when it came to performing his duties; he was the sharpest man in the entire police force and that is why he was also one of the respected and loved officers in the force. When Inspector Raman asked that whether he could meet the rest of the family the sons took him to their house fearing the reaction from the rest of the family and also were very apprehensive about their mother’s reaction.

 

When Paromita got to know the news, she was utterly devastated and she could not bear this tragic news and had a massive heart attack and had to be hospitalized. The whole family of Keshab Sen was in deep shock and emotional loss. The sons had told Inspector Raman about their father’s profession and he also knew about it in the force, so when he was quietly taking look in Keshab Sen’s study, he found an old photograph of a young Keshab Sen with his fellow police officers in a remote police station. So when Inspector Raman asked the family that whether they knew anyone in the photograph, the whole family in unison responded that they did not and this was again strange for Inspector Raman as to how come the family did not know about Keshab’s colleagues.

 

Meanwhile, Arnab Mukerjee, Santosh Mondol, Arun Roy & Biswajeet Guha were also surprised and shocked by Keshab’s murder and they convened an emergency meeting to discuss the situation. All of these four were also former policemen and colleagues of Keshab Sen and they had formed an exclusive club after their retirement. It is to this club that Keshab Sen went every Wednesday in the city. While Arnab was the senior-most and the most grizzled, experienced veteran of police affairs; still he could not understand the reason for Keshab’s murder. The other three were of ordinary mediocre intellect and were used to following orders still at this age. Though Biswajeet was a bit timid and he started panicking and hyperventilating at the news that the number ‘25’ was etched into Keshab’s chest. This bit of information was alarming to all of them as they knew the importance of ‘25’ and all had their concerns but none showed it except Biswajeet. Somehow Arnab managed to calm and console Biswajeet and broke off the meeting saying that they will again meet next Wednesday to discuss any new updates regarding this.

 

A few days pass by and there is still no clue as to the motive and murderer of Keshab Sen when one day Arun Roy, another member of the club gets an anonymous call on his mobile. The caller just says that ‘I have information as to who killed Keshabda and how is it related to 25’; hearing this, Arun at first turns pale and demands to know that how did the caller get this number? and why is he calling him rather going to the police? The caller just impatiently says that if he wants the information, he should meet the caller an hour from now near an abandoned post office and also warns him not to tell anyone about this. Arum first protests but then thinks that if he can get the information, then he can have an upper hand over the group and also strategize on how to deal with this situation.

So he tells his family that he is going out on some urgent business and will be late. His wife Sangeeta is surprised by this but prefers to keep quiet and only advises him to take his umbrella in this heavy downpour and his torch at this time of the night. Arum looks at her and nods and leaves the house. When he reaches the abandoned post office, he could not see anyone, so he decides to wait. After waiting for an hour or so when there is still no sign of anyone, he thinks someone must have played a prank on him and is about to go. As he is about to leave when suddenly he hears a rustling sound behind him and when he turns to take a look, he is blinded by flashlight and a sound which startles him. The sound is harsh and guttural and it says that ‘it is good that you have come otherwise I would have to go to you and that would have been risky’, hearing this Arun is surprised and asks him ‘Who are you and why have you called me here and what is information you wanted to give?’. The sound of the other person speaking to Arun turns a bit aggressive and he says ‘Do you remember a place called Nandi gram and the 25th of January?’ 

 

On hearing the name of the place and the date, Arun is now terrified and he tries to run but the speaker on the other side pushes him hard on the ground. When Arun looks at the other person with fear in his eyes and pleading not to harm him, the other person just laughs at him and shoots him point-blank on the head. As Arun lies dead on the cold ground with raindrops falling on his lifeless face, the other person takes out a knife and carves the number ‘25’ and calmly leaves the place.

 

When Arun fails to return home, his family starts a frantic search for him and even calls the police and after one whole day, they find Arun’s body lying near the abandoned post office. The strange thing was that Arun’s body too had the number 25 carved on it just as Keshab’s body had. 

 

When Inspector Raman arrives at the scene, he is surprised at the similarity of modus operandi of the killer and also wonders why the killer is choosing these specific retired police officers. The media, on the other hand, has a field day with the latest murder and its headlines seem to mock the police. In of the headlines, it states “ Twisted Serial Killer Hunting The Guardians Of the Law”, while another one has more scathing remarks like “The police can’t find the murderer of ex-policemen” etc. This also leads to tremendous pressure on the police department and further culminates in the form of Inspector Raman getting a dressing down by his superiors. This also further frustrates Inspector Raman as to the absence of any witness and motive of the killings. 

 

At the same time, an emergency meeting is again called at the club and this time Biswajeet is completely out of control and he starts cursing the day when he joined the police force and met these guys. Even Arnab and Santosh are quite taken aback and stunned at Arun’s murder and are speechless. Biswajeet again says that ‘there is still time, we can go public with everything and surrender ourselves to the police’, but Arnab is not ready to listen to this and admonishes Biswajeet and tells him to be quiet and let him think.

The police are now on overdrive mode and are leaving no stone unturned to catch the killer and for that Raman has put all his informants on work and even put out feelers to the general public that if anyone has any information about the killer, to kindly come forward and cooperate with the police. All this effort but still it bore no fruit.

 

Meanwhile a young, talented journalist, Sandeep Sarkar had started taking interest in the case and was following up leads when he had met Inspector Ranjan and asked for help regarding the Keshab Sen murder case, but unfortunately, the inspector had nothing helpful to give him. So he decided to investigate on his own and during his investigations, he found out that Keshab Sen and Arun Roy were part of the same police station in Nandi gram, where a tragedy had taken place 25 years ago. He further found out that the remaining members of the group were living in Calcutta, so he decided to give them a visit.

Strangely, the reception that Sandeep got when he went to interview Arnab, Biswajeet& Santosh was that of open hostility, aloofness and resentment though Biswajeet was still seen to be cracking a bit as he was looking very nervous and apprehensive, the other two managed to keep their calm and somehow give rudimentary responses to Sandeep’s questions. This seemed odd to Sandeep and he planned on interviewing Biswajeet all alone one day. Biswajeet was on the verge of a breakdown and he screamed at the other two and again pleaded with them that 

 

‘Please let’s surrender ourselves and go public with the crime we had committed 25 years ago, as our nemesis has come and is now wreaking havoc with our lives.’ But no one was ready to listen to him and though Santosh seemed to have second doubts he looked up to Arnab for guidance who managed to reassure him.

 

As days drag by and there is no breakthrough in the murders of Keshab & Arun, the media and the public keep on hounding the police for swift action. It is during one of these days that the city of Calcutta is again rocked by the murder of the third member of the club and that was Santosh. It seemed at first to the public that it was an accident, but when the police found out that Santosh was pushed from a top floor building and before that both of his legs were broken and the number 25 was carved into his chest before he fell to his death. 

The strange thing was that it seemed Santosh had a surprise in his eyes before he died as if he knew the killer. The media attention had now turned into a frenzy and the public was pushed to near hysteria and panic and they wanted the resignation of the Police Commissioner and all the police force as they were unable to catch the killer. All this heat from the media and public was making matters worse for the authorities, who in turn were coming down hard on Inspector Ranjan. Matters arrive at such a point that the Centre has to intervene and offer the help of CBI in solving the case to the State.

At the same time, Sandeep was quietly carrying his investigations and was nearly close to solving the case when one day as he was returning from home, he was attacked by some unknown masked men and he would have been killed by them but fortunately, an anonymous savior rescued him from his attackers and brought him to safety. When Sandeep wanted to express his gratitude, the unknown man said ’you should be more careful in what you are trying to do’, when Sandeep again asked that how did he know that what he was doing the unknown man said that he knows everything and he will help him close the case very soon. As to being asked about his identity, the unknown man laughed and said ‘you and world will soon know’ and with that, he left Sandeep wondering to himself.

 

Meanwhile, there is absolute panic, tension and terror in the club as now Biswajeet is truly convinced that he will be the next victim; whereas though Arnab is also scared but still doesn’t want to come off the high pedestal on which he has put himself all these years. As a result of events of the past few days, a loud verbal argument starts between Arnab and Biswajeet which starts to turn ugly. 

Arnab accuses Biswajeet by saying that ‘it was you were the weakest link amongst all of us and it would have been better if we had got rid of you then and there only’, to this Biswajeet counters that ‘you only think of yourself and you have always used others for your benefit as you used us and yes you could have got rid of me back then, but you knew that I was useful, so you kept me alive’. This bitter argument goes on for quite some time when the killer who had come to finish his job that day only, suddenly intervenes and demands them to stop their squabbling. As both Arnab and Biswajeet both get startled by this sudden intrusion, they also realize that this masked man has a revolver pointed at them which makes them more nervous and scared. The killer then looks at them and gives a harsh laugh and takes off his mask; this move by the killer is the biggest shock and surprise for both Biswajeet and Arnab as the killer is none other than Ranjan himself. Before either could respond or utter something Ranjan says ‘both of look shocked and surprised!, You could not imagine that it could have been me’. Then Ranjan who is now bringing himself to all that tempo of anger, revenge and other emotions which he kept hidden within himself specifically for this day when he confronts Arnab. He asks him

 ‘do you even remember me? when you were butchering my family and then set them on fire. ‘Just because they did not bow to your illegitimate desire of leaving their house in Nandi gram?’ He further said that when all the members of the group that is Keshab, Arun, Santosh, Biswajeet and Arnab were busy taking bribes from that evil businessman to evict the people from their homes so that he could build his dream project over there; as it was only Ranjan’s family who had stood up to them and refused to bow down and leave. Ranjan then reminds them that when they were committing this heinous crime of killing his family, he was outside and he had witnessed the whole thing and had run for help. But he did not any kind of help from any quarter and he fainted due to extreme exertion and thirst. It was then that some kind gentleman had picked him and brought him to his house and in due course adopted him and helped him to become a police officer. Ranjan is now in his flow and he states that 

‘it took me so much time to find you killers, but now I am happy that I am halfway through my vengeance’, all this while both Arnab and Biswajeet were silent and fear but somehow Arnab gathering enough courage asks ‘ that what proof do you have and you think you will go scot-free?’, to this Ranjan just laughs and says  

 ‘I have spent a long time gathering evidence against all of you and have sent it to the journalist whom you tried to kill.’ To this, both of the remaining members now get scared and Biswajeet even tries to plead for mercy, but Ranjan says that the journalist will be arriving here with the police as he had called before his arrival. Within a few minutes, everyone could hear police sirens approaching their spot. When the police arrive, they too get the shock of their lives by seeing Ranjan as the killer. They are so bewildered to the fact that how come the brightest, sharp and intelligent police officer in the entire force who was leading the investigation into the murders could himself have been the killer? Despite a lot of requests and pleadings by the police officers to Ranjan to let the two of them go and they will take it from there and they will be punished by the law. But Ranjan himself being an ex-police officer knows that the Judiciary works very slowly and it may also happen that these two criminals may go scot-free; so he intentionally ignores their warnings and calmly shoots point blank at Arnab who falls dead to the floor with a surprise in his eyes. The police had no other option but to open fire on Ranjan and he had gone down in a hail of bullets. After a few minutes when the smoke clears and everything settles down, the police enter the club and arrest Biswajeet who is paralyzed with fear and Sandeep sadly looks down at Ranjan’s dead face. It seemed to say that now I can rest in peace and be with my family at a place where no one will ever try to separate them again. Sandeep is so moved by Ranjan’s life and death that he decides to write a story about the whole incident. Which he even does in due course and becomes quiet famous but he still remembers Ranjan and the tranquillity in Ranjan’s face.