Undead

30-Nov-2006

Rudra is transferred on promotion to be Inspector of the station. He wanted to make an impression right away. He called one of his constables and asked him to bring any unsolved cases. Constable said to Rudra that this town is small and does not have any unsolved cases. Rudra was disappointed. He asked the constable to check again. The constable then searched the case history and found one unsolved case. He gave the file to Rudra and left the room.

The next few hours Rudra read the report and went through the evidence. Rudra called the constable back and asked why the case was open. The constable said it is tough to catch the murder. Rudra asked how that is possible. I have seen him clear in the CCTV footage. Then the constable showed a file to Rudra. The file had the picture of the guy from CCTV footage. Rudra threw a quizzical expression to the constable. The constable showed some part of the report. Date of hanging, it was 22-Nov-2006. Rudra verified the file, it had the CCTV footage had 23-Nov-2006 as the date. Rudra could not believe what he is seeing. The constable said, what you are seeing is right sir. The same guy who was hanged was seen the next day in footage killing his neighbour.

 

23-Nov-2006

Ramana, Deepu, and their father Ravi were happy that night. After years of waiting, the man who killed their family was dead. It has been years in waiting and hundreds of dates with the court before Rajesh was convicted. Rajesh was a business rival. He was losing his business to Ravi for many years. Rajesh, when he lost the government tender for railways Ravi got very angry. Ravi believes that day Rajesh tried to kill all of his family that night. Ravi and his sons went out of the city which saved them. They proved the case and Rajesh was hanged till death that day. The three were sitting out on the porch in the night moonlight remembering their family members. They see someone opening the gate and approaching them. They were trying to make out who it was. As the person got close they could not believe who they were seeing. When he got as close as 5 feet, they have seen him take out his gun. Ravi started shouting in fear, Rajesh, please don't kill me. Rajesh shot 6 bullets on Ravi and ran away.

Ramana took their father to the hospital. The Police came to Ravi's house to investigate. The police asked the sons what happened. Deepu replied how a person came and shot their father. Police then asked Deepu did they know who the person was. Deepu told the Police it was Rajesh, their business rival. Police started laughing hysterically. It took a while for Police to control their laughter. After that, the Police asked are you saying the man who was hanged yesterday killed your father. Deepu nodded yes. This time Police got serious and started shouting them out of anger. Deepu showed the CCTV footage, which had Rajesh shooting Ravi. There was absolute silence after that. They registered the case but left the killer as unknown.

 

Current day

Rudra went through the file many more times. He was intrigued by a dead man murdering someone. He was very eager to know more. He immediately went to the house of the deceased. He asked the sons what happened. They explained everything again to Rudra. Rudra went to and checked the CCTV to make sure there is no tampering. He could not find any. He decided to take a different route. He decided to go to Rajesh's house.

Rudra stopped his car in front of Rajesh's house. He opened the gate and started to go in. The house was filled with lots of trees. There were so many trees covering the path, that the path was dark even with sunlight around. Walking towards the house he noticed something in the trees. It was a large Yagna Gundam. It looked like some pooja took place the day before. Rudra walked past it and knocked on the door. The son of Rajesh Shiva opened the door. Rudra introduced himself and said he wanted to talk about the murder of Ravi. Shiva invited Rudra into his house.

Rudra did not tell Shiva about his father in the video. He was discussing the enmity between Rajesh and Ravi. Shiva started telling about 50 years of rivalry. My father was a good man. Ravi, on the other hand, was very cunning. He bought the officers and paid people money to kill our business. We finally found little relief when online tenders started. But he paid our clerk money and found our bid and quoted less than us. That day my father got very angry and said he will kill Ravi. My father was not that man, however. They created false witnesses and proofs to get a conviction. Rudra was carefully listening to Shiva when a loud noise startled. Some old man was crying very loudly and hitting the wall with a metal. Shiva ran from there into another room. After five minutes he came back. Rudra asked Shiva who it was. He told it was his uncle who is not feeling well. Rudra left from Shiva's house. He, however, had few doubts.

Rudra went to his station and asked some constable to observe Rajesh's house 24 hours. He went home and was still wondering about the crying in Rajesh's house. He could not sleep with that memory. That is when he heard his phone ringing. It was the constable placed at Rajesh's house. His voice felt very scared to Rudra. He was trying to say something but the voice was not coming. Rudra asked in a firm voice what it is. The constable replied something weird is happening here, sir. There is a big fire in the premise and I hear some old man shouting and crying very loudly. Rudra immediately took his car to go to Rajesh's house. When he reached there, he could not find anything. He called the constable, the constable did not pick the call. Rudra called him again, still, no one picked. He called one more time, this time he noticed the phone ring close by. He walked towards the sound of the phone. After walking a few meters, he found the constable lying on the road face down. Rudra tried to wake up the constable by calling him. He did not wake up, Rudra tried to wake him by shaking him. The constable’s face turned around and Rudra was startled to see the face of constable. There was blood coming out of both eyes and he is not moving. Rudra composed himself and called for an ambulance.

Rudra went into Rajesh's house after the ambulance left the place. He first checked for fire in the Yagna Gundam, there was none. He walked to the door of the house and knocked. He heard again a loud sound. The same voice he heard that morning. There was no crying this time; the old man is asking Rudra to leave immediately. Rudra knocked on the door again, this time harder. Shiva opened the door after a few minutes. He looked like he just woke up. Rudra said he wants to come in and search the house. Shiva did not agree and asked for a warrant. Rudra had no way to progress and left for the night.

Rudra with his constables, the next morning went to Rajesh's house, this time with a search warrant. He started his search for the old man. After hours of search, he could not find him. He was about to leave when he heard a noise of chains. He walked towards the noise but was stopped by a wall. But the sound sure was coming from the other side of the wall. On top of the wall, he found a small curtain. He dragged a ladder got on top of it to reach the curtain. He pulled the curtain off to see what is there. He saw Rajesh on the other side tied to the wall with chains. Rudra was startled and called the attention of his officers.

Rudra asked Shiva how is Rajesh here. Shiva started to talk. This man is not Rajesh, he is my uncle Ramesh. He is mentally unstable and we keep him in that room all the time. He has been in that room for 30 years now. Rudra asked Shiva to show them the way to go in. There was a locked door which Shiva showed the officers. Rudra asked Shiva to open the door. The room had no ventilation or any other door. It smelled very bad when they went in. To everyone's surprise, the old man is not there anymore. Rudra turned to Shiva and Shiva signaled he had no idea. Then all of the officers heard the sound of chains in the next room. All the officers ran towards the sound. Once they are in the other room the sound of chains was back in the previous room. The constable walked up the ladder to see under the curtain. The old man still was in the same room. Seeing the crazy things going in front of them, the constables started chanting god's name.

Rudra arrested Ramesh and wrote the report to close the case of Ravi's murder. The report went like this. The murder was done by Rajesh's brother Ramesh. They both are twins. Due to his mental condition, he was not known to anyone. As he was not known to anyone Shiva, Rajesh's son sent Ramesh in his father's attire to kill Ravi. Rudra was happy to close the case quickly.

The other officers had few doubts for Rudra. How did the man move between the rooms when we were blocking the only exit? Rudra said he had no answer to give them right away. That anyway does not matter for the case. Rajesh is dead and we have seen Ramesh in the CCTV footage. He is the killer. The case is closed said Rudra. It was almost midnight. He asked the constables to take care of Ramesh for the night. The constables were still spooked by the whole incident that took place with the old man. Suddenly the phone in the police station started ringing at startled everyone. The call was from Deepu, Ramana was shot by someone. Rudra went to Ravi's home to see what is happening this time. He straight away checked the CCTV footage. The shooter was none other than Rajesh.