by Irfan Khan
“That’s not the best way to spend a Diwali day, hang on, I will call back in a bit.”
It was my cook’s day off because of Diwali and I was planning to start cooking some khichdi for lunch. I explored the refrigerator and pulled out some veggies to add to the khichadi when the doorbell rang.
Standing outside my door on the porch was Reema along with her parents. They were carrying a load of stuff, which I helped them carry in. They brought lunch for all of us and Diwali gifts for me. Hemlata held my hands and said that the Diwali gifts were more like Shagun (token to seal a deal) as a confirmation of the wedding. This was a pleasant surprise and surely made my day. Shiv was just nodding in agreement and mostly silent, that was supposed to be his best behaviour. Hemlata was mothering the house, rearranging the stuff in the right place. Reema was beaming all the time and followed me to the kitchen to set up the dining table.
Reema came close to me and whispered “I talked to my parents, first mother agreed and then we both convinced dad.” She peered to see my reaction as I smiled back “Oh god, I am so relieved.”
I was over the moon and Reema experienced that in the form of tight hugs and generous kisses on her lips.
Later that week we had a small wedding with very closed family members and friends. Liquor was definitely served to all. Our honeymoon was in Udaipur and in 2 year we had our son, Aashar.
. . .
Married life was a blast. I had been staying by myself for a long time. I was becoming sort of a recluse. When one stays alone not by choice but circumstances, then loneliness turns into a stubborn virtue. You learn to defend the emptiness and force yourself to believe that it’s the best thing to do. Now with Reema in the house, there was never a dull moment and I was spending the entire day smiling. I waited for weekends like an alcoholic would wait for ‘Happy Hours’.
The pregnant Reema was full of surprises. I am told that women get unexplained cravings and mood swings during pregnancy. Reema was making me go crazy with her midnight demand for paan or kulfi. She demanded a swing on the terrace and wanted me to rock her to sleep on the swing.
People had filled Reema with horror stories of prolonged pain and spinal injections. Thankfully Aashar arrive peacefully. Aashar was born with minimum effort and our lives were recalibrated to the new center of universe.
Reema got busy with Aashar and was not able to look after me as much. Not that I complained. It was such a pleasure to watch her being so sensitive with the baby. I had to beg to hold the baby for a little while. Gradually, I immersed myself in work. More because now, we were a family and I had to plan my son’s future. Technology has a very high velocity of evolution. New software and apps are coming all the time. For my company to remain relevant we will have to constantly upgrade our knowledge. I made sure that we took regular vacations and short trips to break the monotony for all of us.
When Aashar turned 10 we decided to send him to boarding at Dalhousie Hill Top School in Chamba. We both had a discussion and agreed that a boarding school with a great education level will be ideal for Aashar. Reema suddenly started having a lot of spare time. She naturally gravitated towards me and tried to get my attention but by now I was chasing the big clients and was super focused on that. I asked Reema to join me in my business but she was a fish out of water and did not understand any part of my work.
Reema started meeting friends more often and going shopping with them. I had no problem with that as she seemed relaxed and excited. I was not able to participate with her a lot. We would have dinners and parties with her friend’s families. But their conversations and the things they talked about simply bored me. None of them had anything to do with tech.
Reema would wait for me at parties and I would be stuck with a video conference with some overseas clients. I found her sleeping on the dining table quite a few times. In hindsight, I guess those were the days when the sheen of married life was wearing off and we were now a couple who lived together trying to find happiness in the few hours we could spare together every weekend. We started having a few fights about petty things.
. . .
Present-day:
Memories are strange. They can be good and they can be bad. Everyone has good and bad memories. Like trailers and promos of films, our memories are a collection of key events from our life. We recollect only certain parts depending on our mood. Childhood and school days seem to be the best as we remember the fun parts more vividly and the bad parts we reminisce with humour.
As I strolled in the living room, all were asleep. I looked at the pictures on the wall. Every picture was a story. Every story gave me a flood of emotions. The quaint thing of recalling the happy moments of the past is that invariably you start getting sad and depressed. One from knowing those days are gone never to come back and two, the present life looks pale compared to that action-filled excerpts of the past. Whoever is responsible for destroying that peaceful, happy life should be punished and I will make sure of that.
. . .
Cyber Investigation
5 Days after the murder
Elsewhere in Sugaoni:
Chitra runs the ‘Star Wars Cyber Café’. She is mute and deaf. But this has not stopped her from being independent and self-sufficient. She communicates with people in sign language and her regulars have also learnt many of the gestures and emulate them. A customer is leaving so Chitra comes to the desk and looks at her computer monitor and gestures for 50 rupees. The customer understands it and pays, she gives him a piece of candied Apple slice, he smiles as he bites into the sweet and sour Sugaoni sweet.
Chitra gets back to her computer and browses through her email inbox for emails from people who need print outs. She sees a new mail from '@pic-nick'. Chitra smiles as she opens the mail and reads the content. She has been receiving emails from this ID for a week now. She had been told that she would receive a mail with the subject ‘Suspicion’.
When she received the first mail, a month ago, she thought it was some scam artist. The mail had some instructions to follow and promised rewards. It was too good to be true, she let it pass. A little later another mail came and told her to try the system to see if it was a scam. She reasoned that she had nothing to lose and went with the flow. She clicked on some links and forwarded some mails. She received ₹5000 immediately. This delighted her but she maintained caution. She did not share bank details and used her Google Pay account to receive money. For the next few times, it became a routine and she got comfortable. One thing she promised herself, not to read the content of the mail. If she started reading, she would get involved, right now she was only a conduit.
All the mail she received was treated in the same manner. She copied the mail’s text and logged out of the mail service. She then logged into a different browser and initiated the VPN. She and many people savvy with the internet use the VPN protocol to mask their location. Once the VPN kicks in, her location became ‘USA’, she logged in using the “incognito'' feature of the Duck Duck Go browser. This allowed her to prevent the browser from tracking her activity. Now she logged into a private mail service which can only be accessed from the USA and logged in with a new ID ‘[email protected]’ and then in the ‘send to’ box she entered the ID of ‘Insp. Madhav' and pasted the text. She double checked everything and clicked on send and leaned back. This was the first mail she was asked to forward a mail to the police. She has marked the BCC option of the ID of 'Pic-Nick'.
A minute after the mail was sent, she received a notification on her mobile from her bank. She has received ₹5000 from the account of 'Pic-Nick'. Chitra is pleased that her effort has worked out. She had spent a considerable amount of time understanding the instructions to execute this mail. This money was good for her to buy more computers.
. . .
Sugaoni Police Station
Madhav and Jagan are going through Nikhil’s call records. Even though they have not found the mobile handset, they have procured the call records from the telecom company.
Madhav looks exasperated flipping through the pages of the report “There doesn’t seem to be anything in the phone records. There are a few calls from the Bengaluru businessman Sudhir Belawadi. “Jagan, check the records of Sudhir Belawadi. Maybe we will find something that connects him to Nikhil.”
Jagan pulls out the call record sheet and peruses the same. I felt that Sudhir was not capable of going so far. He just tried to scare me.
Jagan ticked mark all the calls on the report “All the calls happened during the time Nikhil was negotiating for the Australian deal.” He switches to the call records of Sudhir and stops “Wait a minute, there is something here, quite recent.” He shows the report to Madhav “The phone location shows that Sudhir had travelled to Dalhousie a week before the murder. Sudhir stayed in Dalhousie for two days.”
This was suspicious to Madhav. I did not support Sudhir but I knew that IT people often taken very short vacations. But Madhav’s instincts were super sensitive right now.
Madhav kept the report back on the table and mumbled while thinking aloud “A person travelling from Bengaluru to Dalhousie must be on vacation as Dalhousie was not a town big enough for business. But who goes all the way on a vacation and stays for only two days? Jagan, we will have to go through the hotel records of Dalhousie. One, to find records of Sudhir and two, whether he was alone or with someone.”
I suspect that he brought a clandestine girlfriend. Sudhir seemed like that kind of a guy. Jagan made a few calls and found the hotel Sudhir used and found out the details.
“Sudhir was alone.”
Madhav shook his head “Alone…? Can’t be a vacation. Was he there for a secret meeting? Maybe to fix things in Sugaoni.”
Jagan chipped in too “Dalhousie was chosen as a neutral ground beyond suspicion. Right’
Madhav felt he was on to something good. I could see his excitement. Now he had some suspects and all he had to do was to check their alibis.
Something else was still bothering Madhav. That employee ‘Sid’. He was missing and the details on his resume were of little help. His address was in Tamil Nadu and Salem police reported that there is no one home. Maybe he and his parents shifted elsewhere.
Madhav asked Jagan to get on the computer to do some cyber investigation. He has been reading a lot about how you can find people through social media. In the metros, the police have a special Cyber Police who is trained for these things. But in Sugaoni one had to do multitasking.
“Jagan, don’t we have a copy of Sid’s PAN Card and driving license”?
Jagan rummaged through his documents “Yes. Here it is.”
“So, the name on the card must be correct? Search for that name.”
The cards showed his name as R. Siddarth. Jagan searched for R. Siddarth as Madhav moved closer to the computer. I was perplexed. Sid has featured again. I must be a naïve person to hire this guy and not know about his background.
Jagan scrolled through the search results “As expected, there are hundreds of them.”
“Filter the results using the address and age.”
He still couldn’t find any close match.
Madhav was not going to give up. “Let us try ‘LinkedIn’ he must be listed on that site and also let’s try job portals.” Madhav was hopeful because professionals seeking jobs use these kinds of platforms.
They drew a blank there too. Madhav thought that something is wrong. How can he not find a young working man anywhere on social media? Then it occurred to him.
“Tamilians have an initial before their name. Sometimes the initial is their Surname and when they use the full name then it looks different. Let’s try the name ‘Siddharth Raghavan’ on the LinkedIn site.”
They got many entries but much less than before.
Madhav was encouraged by the narrowing of the result “Now filter it with education qualification.”
Jagan sprouted a wide grin as he found Sid.
Jagan was triumphant “The photo on the resume is similar and confirms the identity.”
Madhav was on a roll “LinkedIn also shows past work history. But he has not mentioned Nikhil’s company”?
Jagan opined “Maybe he could not update it as he was new.”
Jagan started scrolling to previous companies that Sid worked for and found other companies mentioned were mostly based in Hyderabad and Chennai. Madhav looked on intently desperate to get a clue.
“Nothing seems suspicious.” Jagan’s enthusiasm was diminishing.
Madhav too wondered if this was a waste of time. Jagan saw his predicament and concentrated more intensely.
Madhav started his logic of deduction “Lets recap. Why are we investigating Sid? Does he have a motive? Did anybody call him a suspect? We are suspicious because of his disappearance. So, we must find something more which connects him to the motive of the murder.” Madhav liked where this was going “So far Sudhir has a motive and what is common between Sudhir and Sid is their lineage of south India.”
Jagan got the sense of Madhav’s reasoning. He looked at the profile and then started clicking on the names of every company that Sid had worked for. Most of the companies he worked for were from South India.
Madhav gave some more hints to Jagan “Look at the employees and owners of the companies. LinkedIn also shows you where those employees or owners are connected.”
Madhav got up and poured some tea from the flask. It took a few minutes for Jagan but he landed on one company,
“Sir, Look at this ‘SB Solutions’.
Madhav suddenly felt a tingle, a sort of sixth sense which has been mostly right for him.
Madhav rushed closer to the monitor “Let us see the owner and investors of this company.”
Jagan clicked on the company’s website link and then clicked on the Board of Directors tab. As the page opened, Madhav stopped sipping his tea,
He let out a whistle “Hello ‘Sudhir Belawadi’. SB is Sudhir Belawadi.”
Jagan jumped with joy as Madhav patted his back. Madhav was elated, his hunch was right. Suddenly all was clear to me. Sudhir planted Sid to spy on me and destroy me by hook or crook.
Constable Chandan knocks on the cabin door.
Madhav does not like being disturbed at such times “I hope it is important”? Jagan asks him to enter.
Chandan comes in and salutes “My informer has a tip for me. Somebody was looking for a hitman a few days ago.”
Madhav was interested. I was intrigued and eager to know more. Jagan asked Chandan “Who was looking? Did they find the hitman”?
Chandan did not have more than that “I am still digging. The informer said that Shaktidev Rawat knows a lot about it.”
This made Madhav sit up. This day was turning out to be interesting “I know about that guy he does some muscle work but why would he want to kill Nikhil”?
“He takes contract to kill for anyone with money.” Chandan added as a matter of fact.
Madhav was charged and jumped on his feet. “Get the jeep out. We are going to meet Rawat.”
I was quite confused but super excited for the trip.
Just then Madhav’s computer pinged the ‘new mail received’ bell. He did not recognize the sender ‘[email protected]’ but clicked on the mail. As he read the mail, he looked serious and leaned forward. Jagan knew this posture very well. It means something very interesting is in the mail. He quickly moved behind Madhav to peep at the computer. Jagan let out a gasp and blurt out “oh bhenchod.”
. . .
Who has an alibi?
Day 5 (continued)
Reema is at the gate as her parents gets into the taxi to go back home. She is vehemently assuring them that she will be fine. As their taxi goes down the road, Insp. Madhav’s jeep is coming towards the house. Someone from the jeep gestures the taxi to stop. The jeep stops near the taxi as it turns around and both come towards Reema who is looking confused.
Reema looks quizzically at Madhav and her parent’s car. Madhav asks if they can h
ave a chat inside. Shiv and Hemlata get down from the car with a barrage of protest as Madhav tells them to follow him inside. I knew why Madhav is here.
I always felt that there is one thing common between criminals and police, one can never guess what they are thinking. Madhav looked so calm and composed but I knew that his visit here is going to start a storm.
Madhav enters the house but keeps pacing around. He gestures to everyone to get comfortable. Reema asks him if he would like tea and Hemlata jumps up and says she will make the tea. I wish I had popcorn with me, this was going to be as interesting as a movie.
Madhav looked like he was making up his mind as to where he will begin “Mr. Khosla, how were your relations with your son-in-law”?
Reema looked up surprised then looked at her dad and then back at Madhav trying to interrupt but then decided against it and continued to stare down on the ground.
Shiv cleared his throat and spoke “We were fine. Since he was my daughter's husband, I was cordial with him.”
Madhav nodded and went on “Where were you on the morning of the murder”?
Hemlata was listening to the conversation as the tea water was heating. She looked surprised at the question and then recalled the day. Shiv came in late from his walk and had looked tense.
I remembered that day but now recalled it in a different way. Shiv was not confident, he replied “I was very much here. At home.”
Madhav probed deeper “Were you home all day”?
Shiv looked visibly uncomfortable “No. I went out for some work… walk.”
Madhav was revealing bits of information like laying a trap for him to falter “You met with Shaktidev Rawat at his farm. Is that right”?
Reema and Hemlata looked genuinely surprised just like me. So, the old man was hiding something. Shiv looked uncomfortable. I munched on my imaginary popcorn with suspense.