by Fawaz Jaleel
The television was switched on in the room where Yohan, Ila, and Sukumar were working. On hearing the SDP spokesperson’s comment, Sukumar looked at Ila and made a facial expression as if he sympathized with her.
Ila, good at reading people and knowing that the well-intentioned Sukumar was just trying to be nice, said in a gentle tone, “No, sir. I am here because I am talented and I don't represent any community. Maybe I do: All India Mithali Raj fans association.”
The confidence in her tone, sass in her style, and the awareness of self-worth impressed Yohan and he acknowledged that with a gentle smile. Sukumar, on the other hand, felt that he offended Ila and went on to his usual explanation mode, “Ila madam. Noooo. I didn't mean to say anything like that.”
Yohan intervened, “It's hilarious to see Sukumar getting all defensive and at loss of words.”
Sukumar was once again in a position where his words and actions didn't seem to show his good nature. Ila responded, “I love to see him struggle for the right words and then end up using the wrong ones.”
As the team continued their friendly banter, little did they know what was in store for them. Around 1200 kilometers away from Begusarai, a bunch of policemen gathered at a crowded area in Delhi. The entire area was surrounded with policemen and a siren showed that an ambulance was fast approaching the scene. Amidst the crowd, a policeman picked up his cell phone number, scrolled down to Yohan’s contact, and dialed his number.
After Yohan picked up, the man said, “Yohan sir. I am afraid I have some bad news!”
Chapter 9
A Nexus is Only as Strong as Its Weakest Link
In a puddle of mud, soaked in a mixture of soil, silt, and clay lay the living body of a young man in his early twenties. The Kalkaji police had received a call from a telephone booth inside the nearby two-acre slum area in Govindpuri. Somewhere in between the cramped houses, dilapidated buildings, and narrow lanes was a dump yard right across the area’s drainage pond. As per rules and in the interest of public health, the dump yard must be cleared every morning but much like the development, health, education, livelihood, and other socio-economic aspects of the people in these slums, even this was ignored.
The police identified the person as Priyanshu Tiwari and immediately notified the Delhi CBI team who were on a hunt for the boy. The student was admitted in a leading private hospital in south Delhi with police guarding his life and safety. As the news reached the ears of the CBI team in Begusarai, they were perturbed by the capricious nature of events unfolding in the case. Priyanshu would have filled the missing pieces to the puzzle arranged by his colleague Dinesh and the team hoped for more information on Chirag too. Unlike Dinesh, it was Priyanshu who regularly interfaced with Ashraf via phone owing to his more social nature and carefree attitude as opposed to his colleague who carried the burden of heavy political baggage of his family.
“What in the world is happening now?” Ila looked at Yohan. She was immersed in her documentation and fact filing but this news dampened their spirits.
“We have not even gone after Bashir Hashmi yet and there is retaliation already,” Sukumar closed his laptop and moved toward his teammate.
Yohan stood ahead with his hands entangled with each other, and then moved his index finger to rub his forehead, like he always did when he thought. After some thought, he added, “I hate to say this but it’s quite the opposite I feel. But it’s just an instinct and if it is right, we are going to have a lot more work and some powerful enemies.”
Ila and Sukumar waited eagerly for Yohan to continue. It was around 3 a.m. at night and the team members seemed fresh as new. Their meeting room was a big one with the capacity to hold three single beds, a spacious conference table, two sofas, and a couple of chairs. The room was so big that it had 2 ACs to cover the length and breadth of it. The beds were already in place as Yohan wanted to be prepared for sleepless nights as today. But for now, sleep kept aside, the two team members were focused on Yohan’s words.
“The timing is just too convenient. Priyanshu and Dinesh have been on leave for 10 days. They met Piyali at home on January 2nd and went back to the hostel. Then as per Dinesh’s statement, he went to his grandfather's house the night Piyali was murdered. This was on 5th January. Today is the 10th January or rather, 11th early morning.”
“So, if Priyanshu also left taking a train on the 5th night, he would have reached Delhi on the 6th night. No one knew about his whereabouts for 4 days,” Sukumar added.
“Exactly. If you want to suppress a witness, someone who has planned two would not hesitate committing a 3rd.” Ila started connecting the dots of the puzzle.
“Yes! Why wait for 4 days and then dump him alive without much physical harm. More importantly, why after we round in on Bashir and the news is out in the open?” Yohan made his point and as smart as his colleagues were, they started figuring it out as he raised his suspicions.
“So, you feel that we are being diverted by someone?” Sukumar looked at Yohan.
“It's not a movie, right, where your witness being hurt indicates that the case is moving in the right direction. There are practical and circumstantial aspects that we cannot overlook,” Yohan agreed with Sukumar.
“Sir, should we inform Director Verma because Bashir is powerful and we don’t want to take chances here,” Ila was practical.
“Oh! Don't worry, Ila. I will handle the political pressures.” Yohan was confident as apart from his impeccable general awareness, quizzing skills, and deduction techniques, the man was diplomat material. He would ease through negotiations and get his way and very rarely did political personnel get the better of him even in controversial cases. He continued, “Tell me two questions haunting your mind now. Sukumar, you go first.”
“Why did Tilak Singh not take in Priyanshu along with his grandson? Why let the young man go?” Sukumar replied.
“Interesting. Probe Tilak Singh’s angle and see if he has any leverage.” Yohan now turned to Ila and waited for her question.
“Assuming Bashir wanted to silence Piyali by killing her, how did he do it without a single phone call or even entering her room? Also, why did Piyali not tell anyone immediately after she found out from Priyanshu and Dinesh?”
“Good question. What if he called using the hotel phone and asked them to connect to her? I can ask the hotel authorities,” Sukumar offered his help.
“But then again, how do veins get cut via a phone call? We need to analyze the circumstances. We’ll get to that,” Yohan added.
“What’s on your mind?” Ila asked Yohan.
“Among the many things, it's difficult to pick one. I know you guys also raised the most immediate ones. For me, Chirag is the crucial link since he was present at both scenes. Mukul said Chirag was investigating something. What could that be and how does it connect to these murders?” Yohan raised his concerns over their longest missing link.
Chirag Doraiswamy’s name kept coming into this case at critical junctures and he may be able to fill in for some of the missing information. Yohan was aware of this and wanted to crack this angle at the earliest. “I am going to find out where all Chirag went before absconding from our eyes.”
He then turned to Ila and said, “Continue probing into Piyali. But I want you to do something discreetly.”
Ila was ready for orders as always, “Tell me, sir.”
“CI Raj Tilak did the initial investigation and we saw how he botched it up. He examined both the crime scenes too, including Piyali’s. I want you to dig up his leave history, reason, travel history, etc.” Yohan felt it was time to examine all potential links to be sure.
⁂⁂⁂
The next morning saw the media run riot on Priyanshu’s abduction and discovery. They raised several questions ranging from the effectiveness of the police machinery to the capabilities of the CBI team. The anchor who was chasing TRPs didn’t mince his words, yet again.
“What is happening in this country? A star witness in a high-profil
e case gets kidnapped in broad daylight and gets dumped in the heart of the city. What was the police doing? Hey, Delhi police, answer me … answer me. What were you doing? Hello CBI, what are you doing? Come to my TV show and let’s debate.”
Director Verma often refrained from indulging in television debates but he was miffed at the allegations. It isn't the CBI’s job to prevent the kidnapping attempt as it does not fall under their purview of activities and in all likelihood, the kidnapping happened before the CBI even took the case.
Amid the noises and nuisances on television, Ashraf’s fiancé and maulvi’s daughter, Parveen Shaikh put out a tweet exhibiting her solidarity for Priyanshu and Ashraf. Her tweet read:
A common man had to forego his teaching profession and enter active politics to take on powerful enemies. Even after his death, they are chasing the remains of his legacy. We stand by the truth. We stand by Ashraf. We stand by Priyanshu. We will take up this fight on their behalf and keep fighting till we fall or their vicious, self-serving empires have fallen. #JusticeforAshraf
Her tweet found support from various social media handles, especially the youngsters in Begusarai and Bihar in general. In Ashraf, they saw a young Indian voice, an outsider to the ecosystem being subdued for speaking up, as the new discoveries hit their eyes. It was not just Bihar but support poured in from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, and other parts of the country.
While this found some attention on national media, there was a heated debate between the BNC and the SDP. The former’s link to Bashir Hashmi put them on a spot but they focused on painting Ashraf’s death as yet another case of minority attacks. Even while all these discussions were happening, the CBI hadn’t summoned Bashir for questioning yet as Yohan wanted more conclusive evidence from Priyanshu. He decided to wait and see if Priyanshu would be in a position to speak in the next 24 hours as this might give them more meat to corner Bashir Hashmi. There seemed to be an organic support developing in the form of sympathy turned solidarity in Parveen’s favor. Expectedly, these raised concerns and frowns in the camps of the BNC and the SDP as smart political strategists could see the potential mileage from this incident. Even as the above-mentioned national parties and Bihar’s regional parties remained quiet fearing this could hamper their electoral chances in the upcoming by polls, it was the AIPIM leader who was the first political leader to address this. As a man of many words and less substance, aiming significant political gains by capitalizing on Ashraf’s death in the 15 Muslim-dominated constituencies, Akbar Syed made his rhetoric for the day.
“What took her so long to speak up? She and her father see a vacant throne of the prince and want to claim their stake. Janaab aur mohatarma, being a fiancé doesn’t make you the rightful heir. Even if you were his wife, it doesn't mean the people of Bihar will support you. Don’t use your personal tragedy for political gains,” shouted the AIPIM man whose brother was presented as the heir to his own party. The rhetoric reeked of sexism, arrogance, and a desperate attempt to capture the Muslim votes in select constituencies. The BNC and the SDP didn't bother criticizing this man who Ila referred to as the “media-chasing megalomaniac.” Probably, they agreed with Akbar but were politically more mature to not state it publicly considering the timing and the emotions of the public. He did not stop with this and went on to publicize his larger agenda.
“It is SDP in the center. What more can you expect from the CBI when their masters want to frame an innocent Muslim man and entrepreneur, Bashir. This is yet another conspiracy against the minorities.”
Unlike his non-national party, the SDP had invested in smarter spokespersons who had more nuanced answers to allegations by the likes of Akbar Syed.
“At least to respect the thoughts and values of Ashraf, stop painting an entire community as just minorities. In numbers, yes, but that is not and will never be their only identity in Hindustan.”
While the political intentions of the statement can be debated, it couldn’t be criticized for its packaging or delivery. More than this, SDP was able to successfully evade supporting Parveen directly and yet have a successful day in the eyes of the social media republic. While incidents such as these kept happening, more and more support poured in favor of Parveen, condemning the AIPIM leader’s crude criticism with lack of any sensitivity or evidence. Later, Parveen put up another tweet thanking the people for their support and time. Her pledge was clearer than ever:
I thank the people of Bihar and India for standing by me, against the evil intentions of certain elements of the society. Today, I pledge to rejuvenate the Naya Bharat Samachar that Ashraf intended to use as a voice to expose the unjustness in the society. I will also work with the existing committee of the Naya Bharat Manch and see if I can offer anything to add to their vision towards good governance for Bihar.
As Parveen was “trending” in the digital manifestation of the world, the CBI team were on their way to meet the ever-controversial and always in the limelight personality—Akbar Syed, the president of the AIPIM party. While his electoral chances in the whole of Bihar were negligible and insignificant, despite his recent 5-seat victory in the assembly elections, his noise and relentless babble with an agenda to polarize the death of Ashraf Zain, especially against the national ruling party, i.e., SDP, wasn’t making the investigation easier for the agency. His name had not cropped up even once in the investigative process, yet the team had to meet him on Director Verma’s insistence. The reasons that forced Verma to make this decision would remain a private secret amongst the ruling party’s circle.
Akbar Syed wasn’t a resident of Bihar, so he rented out a bungalow in Gobindpur, which falls on the Mungher Ghat–Rashidpur road in Begusarai. This bungalow was at least 12 kms away from Ashraf’s house in Ulao and around 15 kms away from Piyali’s house in the Barauni IOC township. The team was at a touching distance from his house and they could see the two-story bungalow inside the newly erected township. They could see a couple of guards outside the house and a few vehicles parked outside too. There were four to five hoardings with slogans like “Bachayenge Bihar, Badayenge Bihar” (Will Save Bihar, Will Grow Bihar), with his photo occupying the center stage while his brother and other party members also made the cut. While the house donned an off-white paint, it had maroonish-red lines and borders around the windows and doors. The driver stopped right in front of the gate, allowing the CBI team to alight and proceed into Akbar’s house. The guards did a basic body checkup of Yohan and Sukumar and used a scanner on Ila before allowing them inside.
From a distance, Yohan could see the tall and decently built Akbar walking toward them. He was around 6’1, wore a kurta pajama, a Nehru jacket over it, and rectangular spectacles. As on TV, the man had a taqiah on his head, a cap mostly worn by Muslims across the world. His dressing seemed like an obvious attempt to project his religious identity much like the foundations of his party that had minimal presence in a couple of states. He had a bachelor’s and a master’s degree to prove his education from abroad; but contrary to popular belief, it is no guarantee that an education abroad leads to a progressive and skilled individual.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Akbar said as he greeted the team.
He guided the officers to his meeting room inside the house. They crossed the hall that was heavily occupied with party workers dressed in whites of different kinds.
“Weren’t you originally stationed in Patna? Did you move your camp to Begusarai after Ashraf’s death or before it?” Ila didn’t waste any second and dived straight in.
Yohan liked Ila’s promptness, while Sukumar was bewildered seeing her go-getter attitude. Meanwhile, Akbar wasn’t too pleased with the question but he hid his displeasure with a smile. But the gleam in his eyes was enough for an observant Yohan to understand the reaction.
“We are not even waiting for chai to get started, isn’t it, madam? What’s your name?” Akbar had his eyes fixed on Ila since her question.
“Her name is Ila and she likes her answers fresh e
ven at the cost of chai,” Yohan interfered as he knew that as a team leader, it was his job to strike all balances and ensure it remains cordial, especially since the person was not a suspect yet. Meanwhile, Ila was prejudiced against Akbar. She hated the likes of him who projected religion for petty electoral gains.
“Ila what?” Akbar was a politician and had his way with words and wasn’t one to easily get rattled. Ila flashed her ID card in return as she always maintained an economy of words and never babbled unnecessarily.
“Oh, Ila Qureshi. So, you are the token Muslim in this gang.” This time, Akbar wanted to rattle not just Ila, but the entire team.
“Only politicians need tokens, sir. We get in through merit and Ila’s surname still doesn’t hold more weightage than her qualifications. I could give you an entire data sheet on why she is statistically one of the best to be on this case.” This time, Sukumar landed a punch and it struck gold in terms of content and timing. He would have been able to provide the data too if there was a follow-up rebuttal from the politician in front of him.
While Ila loved to speak for herself, she was happy she didn’t have to at this instance. Her confidence only soared. She added, “While we wait for that chai, why don’t we hear your opinions about the case?”
Akbar paused for a while as he knew his usual rhetoric wouldn’t work with the CBI. Over the days, he had pushed several narratives such as Ashraf and Piyali’s alleged relationship and how it fell into the newly coined ‘love jihad’ narrative and alleged SDP’s role in the murder. He further accused the CBI team of being puppets of the central government who wanted to pin down an “innocent” Bashir Hashmi and thereby attack the minorities. His narratives always had two commonalities—a Muslim victim and a common perpetrator, the SDP.