Nobody Likes An Outsider

by Fawaz Jaleel

  “So he also came with you?” Ila asked.

  The CI had his sweat dripping down his forehead. He was masking some information and hesitated to part with it easily.

  “Come on, Raj. Is there something we need to know? Because from where we see this, you are an accomplice to this crime.” Yohan was at his diplomatic best, showing affection and concern for the officer.

  “Sir, I didn’t do anything wrong,” the CI reiterated.

  “I want to believe you. Just tell me what happened,” Yohan continued asking calmly.

  “So, we got a call from Hotel Plateau around 7p.m. reporting the suicide of Piyali Sharma. On hearing the name, I knew who it was because she had come to the station multiple times with Ashraf saheb for various issues,” Raj started opening up to Yohan, while Sukumar and Ila listened carefully. Once the station received a report, especially a crime or something big, it was customary to page the concerned officers using the transceivers they possessed. Raj Pratap had informed the control room to do the same.

  “So, Jeevan Pundir who was near the hotel received the message on his transceiver and told me that he will head to the hotel and wait for us. He reached first and waited for us in Piyali’s room,” Raj explained the situation.

  “You are telling me that an officer reached before you, that too a circle-inspector? Then why the hell did you not mention this in the FIR. The bloody FIR that was being circulated to the whole world through social media and news channels.” Yohan’s change in attitude was sudden as this was yet another botch up by the police.

  “It's simple, sir. Rajji wanted to hog all the attention in a sensational case. He was piggybacking on this for professional gains,” Sukumar added.

  “C’mon, Sukumar. You think Raj is so naive and innocent? What if he did all this and also hid the iPad on instructions from Piyali’s murderers, maybe,” Ila joined the banter.

  “No, sir. No, madam. I didn’t do anything. Jeevan was okay with me being the lead because this wasn't his jurisdiction. He just happened to reach there earlier and was okay with letting me take charge,” Raj Pratap tried explaining.

  “And you fell for the goodness in his heart instead of asking what his fucking business was to enter the crime scene before you?” Yohan’s fury was evident.

  “Sir, it was a suicide. There wasn’t much to doubt. He waited for us anyways before leaving.” Raj Pratap was trembling now; he, who tried to hide his incompetence and feared being ousted from service, started crying in front of the officers.

  “Raj, just think about it. If he left before you, he would have been in trouble. He waited and used you and your team to get out of this without an iota of doubt. He played you, Raj,” Yohan shot straight.

  “But he has no reason to … He was just there and helping. Why would he possibly?” As Raj uttered these words, the conviction dropped with each second and he himself started analyzing the whole thing.

  “Raj, I am afraid you have been gullible. While enjoying the media attention, you let a possible accomplice to crime get away.” Yohan shook his head sideways expressing his disappointment.

  “But we have no reason or proof to believe this. Trust me.” The policeman was in tears but continued to remain in disbelief.

  “Yes. We will give you the benefit of doubt because the law gives you that privilege until this is proven. As far as reason is concerned, it is now our job to find this guy and connect the missing dots.” Yohan got up from the table he was sitting on and gestured to Sukumar and Ila to meet him outside, while leaving Raj Pratap in the room. The CI had his head down, sobbing uncontrollably at the situation he was in. Before leaving the room, Yohan picked a bottle of water and left it on the table and gently patted Raj Pratap on his way outside.

  Outside the room, they rushed to the kitchen area that was relatively quiet. On his way, Sukumar peeked through the glass window in the living room, only to find the media still strongly holding their ground outside the gate.

  “Sir, do you really think he is telling the truth about this Jeevan Pundir? What if it is his setup to throw us off?” Sukumar expressed his concern.

  “Look at his body language, Sukumar. Ila, you were observing right? What were his body signals?” Yohan passed the baton to Ila.

  “Sir, not a strong tone. More like a softer one which is usually when the person is not lying or partial lying at the most. There were no jitters by the feet, he was sturdy, again a sign of telling the truth. He didn’t use phrases like ‘as far as I can remember’ or ‘now that I think about it’ or other time buying phrases to cook up a story, so that's again a sign of him telling the truth and…” Ila went on like an observant robot.

  “Yeah and no folding lips while speaking or any other inconsistencies in the speaking manner. This isn’t proof but we have our basic training and instinct right, anna?” Yohan added on.

  “Yes, sir. So now we need to look into Jeevan Pundir’s record, right? Sukumar asked.

  “Yes, that means everything, Ila. He’s a policeman so you can get a lot of information from the official records … at least gather as much as you can in the next couple of hours and most importantly, his location history—match them with our scenes of interest” Yohan instructed.

  “Okay. I’ll brief you at 2 p.m.” Ila saluted and prepared to leave.

  “Not just me. Director Verma too,” the team lead replied.

  ⁂⁂⁂

  “Viewers, my dear viewers. What do you do when you can’t hide your own failures? You blame it on others. YOU BLAME IT ON OTHERS!” the second time the leading journalist repeated the same phrase, at least two people sitting next to him in the studio had their heart beat increased. Then again, they were pandering to the audience who wanted a slice of drama in reality and an antagonist to toy with.

  Inside the epicenter of media attention, Ila quickly grabbed her gadgets and files and rushed to the conference room to brief her team and Director Verma via video call. Yohan saw her hands full and offered to take some of her stuff, while Sukumar opened the door for the duo to enter. Inside, he had already set up the projector. They dialed Verma who picked it immediately after the first ring.

  “C’mon, guys. I am fighting a very tough battle here for you people. The arrest of CI Raj Pratap better yield results.” Verma didn’t waste time with pleasantries and introductions.

  “Sir, we have a statement from Raj that clearly indicates false reporting, evidence tampering, and unauthorized access of an individual to the crime scene,” Yohan assured his director and passed on the baton. “Ila, why don’t you present your initial findings on Jeevan Pundir, the CI of a nearby station who reached Piyali’s scene of death before the local authorities?”

  Ila started with explaining the context behind the investigation and the missing iPad. She had called Piyali’s father to cross-check if the iPad was at home. She even called Piyali’s alleged boyfriend, Mukul, who also confirmed the existence of an iPad and that it was with the secretary at all times. However, neither of them knew where the device was currently. The scene of death was just 3.8 kilometers from the Begusarai police station in Hemra where CI Raj Pratap was stationed, while Jeevan Pundir’s station was Mufassil Thana in Begusarai that was around 11 kilometers from the scene.

  “His mobile records show that he was hovering in the region around the hotel for at least two hours. We could track his phone tapped into 2 towers in a 3 km radius. The last track was at the tower closest to the hotel.”

  “How many towers are there in that radius?” Sukumar asked.

  “It can’t be more than two as there is a government mandate against towers within a 1 km radius. So, these are most likely the only two towers for his network,” Yohan answered the query.

  “Yes, these are the only two. So, he reached as soon as the death was reported via the transceiver, easily a few minutes before Raj and team,” Ila added on to her findings.

  “It's almost as if he was prepared for it,” Sukumar answered.

  “Yes, that leave
s us with one question though. Even if this is true, how did he know Piyali was going to suicide that very day around that time?” Verma raised a valid point.

  “What if someone in the hotel helped him?” Ila offered a thought.

  “Possible. But even then, we have a problem. No signs of outside entry. The hotel staff claim that they had to break open the door. So, no one could have killed Piyali,” Yohan countered.

  “I agree with Yohan, Ila. We can’t arrest the man without anything,” Verma said.

  “Yes. If we get the iPad, then we may have something but as per our theory, he took it,” Sukumar added.

  “You know what I think. This Piyali suicide is just throwing us off the Ashraf case. Maybe, it has no connection to this murder. This CI is a mere coincidence and he responsibly came to the scene and waited for the right officer to take charge.” Verma looked a little upset while saying this. He knew that this would raise serious concerns on the modes of investigation. “Guys, why do I smell disappointment?” Verma as an individual or superior hardly shouted or yelled but words, if spoken in the right way, have an immense power to hurt.

  “Sir, I’ll take responsibility if we face the heat from the higher ups,” Yohan didn't want to let his superior down nor put his teammates under pressure.

  Meanwhile, Ila had a gentle smile on her face. She rolled up her sleeves, entangled both her hands using her fingers, and stretched forward with her elbows facing the outside. “Why do men give up so early? Is it a gender thing or as you rise up the ranks, you prepare yourself to accept failure easily?” Ila was totally out of character. Sukumar rolled his eyes at Yohan, sensing a tinge of cockiness from an otherwise restrained Ila. Then again, he calculated and approximated the number of sleep hours his colleague might have lost after taking up the case and convinced himself with data that it was the sleep deprivation doing it.

  “Ila, I will listen to a thousand taunts but please tell me my unwavering faith in you will remain intact if I wait long enough.” Ila’s slight cockiness didn’t offend Yohan. In fact, as someone who was more than slightly cocky himself, he enjoyed his colleague’s new character shade. He also knew that she had done more than she could have in the stipulated amount of time that was given to her. Verma smiled at the sudden change of mood and thoroughly enjoyed himself albeit virtually amid a set of young minds.

  “I did some more digging into Jeevan Pundir. Look at these dates. The man was on leave during these days. And guess what happened?” Ila quickly moved on to the remainder of her findings.

  Yohan’s eyes lit up seeing the dates and the maps on the screen. He knew that this could buy them time and a reason to probe into Jeevan Pundir. Sukumar cross-checked his notes just to be sure. Director Verma also sported a smile as Ila justified her otherwise disorderly taunt.

  “Good stuff, Ila. Now this is something we can build on. You are right. We men just give up so early,” Director Verma praised the young officer.

  “Thank you, sir. And by the way, there’s more … He has a connection with one of our suspects,” she replied.

  Chapter 14

  All's Well That Connects Well

  Ila hit a new high with her impeccable timing and accelerated research methodology that led to the uncovering of important facets in the case. Based on Ila’s research, Jeevan Pundir was missing from service around the same dates the deal for five tanker trucks was made in Chennai. There were records of his presence in Chennai and Patna airports, along with flight tickets to and from the locations. Of course, these weren’t the same dates but there was a similarity in the timelines. Ila also appointed the local team in Chennai to visit the tanker truck seller with Jeevan’s photo and description to verify the claims. Meanwhile, Sukumar extracted the data of Jeevan’s phone including the numbers linked to the Aadhaar cards of his close family members and subordinates. The main intention was to track the suspect’s whereabouts on the day of Ashraf’s murder.

  “One of Jeevan’s numbers was caught by the towers near Ashraf’s crime scene. But this was two days after Ashraf’s death. No records for at least a week before or after that,” Sukumar informed Yohan.

  “Here’s a theory. Based on our files, the driver fled the scene immediately after the accident. But none of our records show him exiting the nearby CCTV zones. What if Jeevan gave him a safe hideout somewhere in that deserted area for two days and sneaked him out two days later,” Yohan made a hypothesis.

  “Possible, sir. But what if the driver hid behind or inside a truck and fled the scene. The CCTV cameras wouldn’t catch that,” Sukumar countered.

  “Possible but not probable. Look at the case throughout. We got multiple leads, multiple angles, multiple suspects but never multiple accomplices. Jeevan is the first accomplice to someone as of now unless he had a personal motive,” Yohan debated.

  “So, you are saying that whoever orchestrated the whole thing has been very careful not to leave many loose ends.” Ila added.

  “Exactly, Ila. So, we need to grab this guy. His dates match the Chennai tanker deal. The records show his presence in both Ashraf’s and Piyali’s deaths. So, he is most probably the missing link who connects all the dots,” Yohan built on his hypothesis.

  “But what would be the motive?” Sukumar raised a valid point.

  “That’s for us to find out,” Yohan reminded him.

  “Actually. I have something…” It was Ila once again.

  “Wow, Ila. You are on a roll. In fact, you are our gift that keeps on giving. Shoot now,” Yohan’s smile was wider than ever.

  Through the course of this case, Ila started loosening up a bit. She smiled more than usual and the compliment from her boss forced a glee on her face. But this change on the personal front had no bearing on her thorough professionalism which remained intact.

  She opened a file on her tab to explain a connection she found in Jeevan Pundir’s case.

  It was in July 2018 when a concerned parent filed a case in the Patna High Court. The case accused a tutorial center of providing lower quality of services and practicing discrimination against a certain set of students. The report accused the owner, Sumit Rajput, of fostering a culture that ensured students coming from lower castes were given different seating in classes, no personal contact of teachers belonging to upper castes, and even unsaid rules of separate seats in the cafeteria. The plaintiff also alleged that she had filed a case in the Mufassil Thana but received cold responses from the sitting inspector, Jeevan Pundir. She further stated that a couple of other parents too filed similar complaints at the station, only to receive lukewarm responses from the concerned officer.

  “Brilliant. How did you dig this up, Ila?” Yohan first applauded his teammate.

  “A look into case files and court orders with a filter adding Jeevan,” she replied.

  “Great. But what is your theory here? How does this fit into our scheme of investigation?” Sukumar asked almost immediately after she finished speaking.

  Ila was a bit offended that her same-rank colleague didn’t even bother appreciating her work, something that wouldn’t usually bother her. But the dark circles below her eyes, dry skin, and a recurring dehydration headache were enough to plug-in new behavioral traits.

  “Here’s what I think. Jeevan Pundir may have been the accomplice since he has no actual motive, but Sumit Rajput has professional vengeance against Ashraf. The initial feud, followed by the newspaper report on the tutorial mafia. He would have feared that Ashraf might target the caste angle next which is a bigger issue.”

  Yohan considered her angle, and gave it a deep thought. He went on to scribble a few things in a notepad. It had names, flow charts, and arrows all over it. “So, you are saying that he played it safe and chose the time such that Bashir would be the prime suspect. To add on to this, he could have orchestrated Priyanshu’s abduction. We anyway had doubts on the timing of Priyanshu’s reappearance.”

  “But how would he know Bashir is the prime suspect? For once, even if I buy this, wh
at about Chirag? Why did Ashraf visit all these places linked to the riots?” Sukumar pointed out the loose ends with his counters.

  “Good catches, anna. Ila, dig deeper. See if Jeevan is connected to anyone else too. But this angle is strong. Sumit Rajput could be our guy … or one of our guys.” Yohan’s last point didn’t go unheard or unnoticed by his colleagues.

  “Are you suggesting the involvement of more people?” Sukumar questioned immediately.

  “You seem to be in some hurry today, anna … I am just suggesting. We need reasons to justify this,” the senior inspector replied.

  “Let’s get hold of Jeevan. He has been on leave after Piyali’s death,” Ila suggested.

  “I checked using my local sources. The guy is not at home or his usual places. We need to arrange for a manhunt,” Sukumar responded.

  “Call the central team. Get as many resources as needed. Time is crucial now. We can’t waste a lot of time on it. Meanwhile, get me a meeting with Sumit Rajput. It should appear as though we are making a casual visit.” Yohan had his next steps ready.

  “Sure, sir. I’ll do it right away. Ila madam, I think establishing this connection and that too so quickly is going to be a turning point.” Sukumar had a bright smile on his face. Ila was elated on hearing this but the emotion was short-lived. Her smile faded in less than 20 seconds after she realized that she didn’t like this newly developed ‘compliment-thirsty’ attitude of herself. She just needed a night’s good sleep and she had earned it.

  ⁂⁂⁂

  Jeevan Pundir was nowhere to be found at his usual places in the city. The team extended their search to all corners of the state. His house in Ulao has been locked for days, as per the information given by the neighbors. An unmarried 35-year-old man, with a well-toned body and above average height of 5’7, Jeevan was a regular to the gym in the Begusarai Police Club. His parents passed away more than five years ago, making it difficult for the search team to trace him using his roots. The Muffasil Thana circle inspector had become an unmissable link in the case due to his presence and absence at locations during crucial events leading to and post the deaths of Ashraf and Piyali. The CBI team suspected that he traveled to Chennai and cut the deals for the tanker trucks out of which one was used to cause the accident of Ashraf. His presence at Piyali’s scene of death and her missing iPad further added to the doubts. Finally, his connection to Sumit Rajput opened up a link that further added to the course of the investigation.