A Passionate Crime

A group of 4 boys held their breath as they placed their fingers on the coin lying on the ouija board and closed their eyes. They whispered something incoherently for quite sometime and they slowly opened eyes.

"How many times I had told you Reyansh," one of the boys glared at his friend, "that spirits don't exist."

"Let's try one more time, Amit." Reyansh implored.

"I'm going home," Amit said as he got up. "Are you guys coming?"

The other two boys also got up and followed Amit as he walked out of the cellar of Reyansh's house. Reyansh gloomily watched his friends vanish behind the door of the cellar. Suddenly, he was jolted as he heard some noise in the cellar. He turned slowly to see the coin move automatically over the ouija board. He froze on his seat out of shock and horror. Suddenly a bright light filled up the room. Reyansh shivered and let out a scream. Darkness took over as Reyansh fainted and fell down on the floor.

2 Days later...

Inspector Trivedi stepped out of the lift and walked with quick, confident stride through the narrow corridors of the hospital towards a semi- bald man who was sitting alone on bench at the end of corridor. He had buried his face in his hands in utter dejection.

"Akash," Inspector Trivedi placed a hand on the bald man's shoulder as he sat down by his side, "how is he?"

"The doctors are examining him."

"What had happened to Reyansh?"

"He was fine till me and Priya left for Ahuja's party, two nights ago, leaving him alone at the house." Akash sobbed. "And when we returned we found him in the cellar, shivering badly and talking irrelevantly to himself."

Trivedi opened his mouth to console his friend but his words were interrupted by the ringtone of his cellphone. He talked briefly to his subordinate over the phone and stood up eagerly.

"An accident had happened in the jungles on the outskirts of Chandanpur." Trivedi said patting on his friend's shoulder, "I've to go. But you don't worry, everything will be fine."

Trivedi rushed down to the parking lot and drove his car in a furious frenzy to Chandanpur. He reached the accident site within half-an-hour.

"A strong smell of alcohol is emanating from the dead body," Sub-inspector Rana said. "It seems that the accident had happened two days ago."

"Who is he?" Trivedi asked as he scrutinized the dead man.

"According to his ID card," Rana held the card close to his eyes to have a better view, "he is Dr. Arjun Sharma, a neurologist at SSVS Multispecialty Hospital."

"Send the body for postmortem and inform the victim's family." Trivedi ordered. "Rana go and collect as much details as you can from SSVS hospital."

A week later, Trivedi went to visit his friend Akash Tripathi.

"Oh, Vishal," Akash turned pale as he saw Trivedi, "thanks for coming but actually we were about to go out."

"Where?"

"Priya wants Guruji to have a look at our Reyansh."

"That sounds really very silly!" Trivedi was outraged. "How can you believe in such monks? They are all frauds."

"But we don't have any other option." Akash shook his head vigorously.

"What do the doctors say?"

"They say that Reyansh can't bear the pressure of studies and has lost his sanity." Akash threw his hands up in the air, "but I know that's not true. My son is a class-topper. He loves to study."

"If you don't have faith in that doctor's diagnosis then take him to some other doctor," Trivedi shrugged, "and not to some idiotic monk!"

"There is more to it," Akash looked sheepishly at his friend.

"What?"

"Reyansh says that he knows who had murdered Dr. Sharma."

"What!" Trivedi frowned. "Reyansh must have heard about Dr. Sharma on the television. Don't take him seriously."

"He had been saying this over and over again for two days even before Dr. Sharma's body was discovered in the forest."

"If that's true," Trivedi's sharp eyes pierced through Akash, "I'll drive you to Guruji."

"Tell me who are you?" Guruji roared as he looked ferociously at Reyansh, "and why have you possessed this poor boy?"

"I'm Dr. Sharma," Reyansh, who was a 9-year-old boy, said in manly voice, "and I want my murderers punished."

"Who are they?" Guruji put oblation in fire and it burnt fiercely.

"My wife Sakshi and her lover Amar." With those words Reyansh passed out.

Trivedi quickly pulled out his mobile phone and punched a few numbers.

"Rana," Trivedi whispered on the phone. "We have to re-open Dr. Sharma's case."

The next morning, Rana walked proudly towards the cabin of his superior.

"Good morning, sir," Rana politely greeted Trivedi, "I've collected all the details."

"Please go on," Trivedi gestured with his hands for Rana to sit.

"Dr. Sakshi Sharma and Dr. Amar Mittal were classmates during their college days." Rana cleared his throat and said, "they were madly in love with each other but later they broke up and Dr. Sakshi's parents got her married to Dr. Arjun Sharma."

"Send Dr. Sakshi and Dr. Mittal in." Trivedi smirked.

"Yes, sir," Rana nodded and left the cabin.

A little later, the two doctors walked in and sat down nervously opposite to Trivedi.

"Dr. Mittal," Trivedi turned sharply to him, "where were you on the day Dr. Sharma was killed?"

"I was in Pune to attend a conference." Mittal wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.

"But you left it halfway and turned back in the afternoon." Trivedi glared, "why?"

"I wasn't well."

"But you reached your home, that was only 5 hours of drive from Pune, only in the morning. "Trivedi shrugged, "then where were you the whole night?"

"My car broke down halfway through the highway and I had to spend the whole night in my car."

"And where were you that day, Dr. Sakshi?"

"I was at home."

"Well," Trivedi's eyes darted alternately at the two doctors, "we have the statements of eye-witnesses who had seen Dr. Mittal in Chandanpur. And that too parking his car in the courtyard of Dr. Sharma's farmhouse there. And then a lady clad in burkha entered the farmhouse right after him. You must be wondering who the lady is."

Trivedi got up from his chair and walked towards the doctors.

"When I scrutinized the video tapes of the security camera fixed outside Dr. Sakshi's cabin, I saw a lady wearing a burkha leaving the room but not entering it. To my surprise, I didn't see Dr. Sakshi leave her cabin that evening but I saw her entering her cabin the very next morning."

He threw quizzical glances at both the doctors and chuckled as he watched them turn pale.

"Now dear doctors," he placed his heavy hand on Dr. Mittal's shoulder and glared at Dr. Sakshi, "I think it will save us lots of troubles if you confess the truth."

"We loved each other." Mittal said, "but her parents forced her to marry Arjun because he was a rich man. But we couldn't forget each other. She had begged at Arjun's feet to allow her a divorce. But he remained adamant and we had no other option but to kill him. We invited him to the farmhouse on the pretext of a party and dopped his drinks with drugs. When he had passed out, we put him in his car and drove to the edge of the cliff. Then we pushed his car down the cliff."

"So," Trivedi sighed, "passion has turned you into macabre criminals!"