‘She met you?’
‘Yes, and also told me everything. Sahib, the injustice of the mighty ones seems unending, it happens from all directions. It seems that there are only two classes in society now—those who commit injustice, and those who endure injustice.’
‘And you are with those who endure it?’
‘Yes, because I too belong to them.’
‘And so does Sushmita?’
‘Yes.’
‘So that’s why you are with her?’
Jeet Singh did not reply immediately, he thought it over for some time.
‘I am only telling you this, sahib,’ he said finally, ‘I did not tell her anything like that. I told her not to expect anything from me. But, to tell you the truth, I am definitely with her.’
‘So the old passion is again raising its head?’
‘I can’t say what it is. What I want to say is that I am mighty sure the marriage did take place. And it happened exactly the way Sushmita had told me.’
‘How did you know?’
Jeet Singh narrated his conversation with the photographer in detail.
‘Oh!’ Navlani said.
‘He was an eye-witness of the marriage, and I lost him by oversight. I thought if he is not already missing like the first two witnesses, he may not go anywhere, but he is also missing now.’
‘What would you have done had he not gone into hiding?’
‘I would have forced him to write down his true statement.’
‘Jeet Singh, such statements are of no use without the physical appearance and endorsement of it by the witness. If the witness fails to make a physical appearance and endorse the statement, then the second party can allege you had written it yourself.’
‘God!’
‘As you are now aware that the police are favouring them and in such a situation when the time comes, the photographer would have said you had forced him to write the statement. In other words, following the police’s instructions, he would very easily disown that statement.’
‘What shall I do then? Sahib, you are an experienced, intelligent person, you tell me what shall I do?’
Navlani thought for some time.
‘If the police were not backing them in this,’ he said finally, ‘it was not a difficult game then. But even if they are, one sho can’t stop everything, he can’t plug every loophole. However, this angle of “you murdered him and Sushmita helped you in it” may create some trouble. If Sushmita starts raising a hue-and-cry, they can easily arrest both of you. And since you are a known criminal in their eyes with a regular history-sheet, it would be easier for them to build a case against you irrespective of the fact that you were never convicted in any of the cases made against you.’
‘So, I am the killer of Changulani sahib, I am the carjacker …’
‘Just some moments ago, you said if anybody goes anywhere and enquires about you, he will be told you were a vault-buster, safecracker, history-sheeter, a known bad element, a criminal. When you yourself accept this much, what’s wrong in being a carjacker as well? It’s good that people don’t know you have also committed murders, but that won’t help as you had been arrested in a robbery case and were in jail. It was sheer luck that you were acquitted by the court because of lack of evidence. Think about it, is there any reason why it won’t be child’s play for the police to build a new case against someone like you? The magistrate will form an opinion about you the moment he is told these details, even before the beginning of the arguments.’
‘But when I didn’t do a thing …’
‘The prosecution will prove that all of it was done by you. Just imagine, if the police can prepare witnesses not to give any statement, as in the case of Mira Kishnani, they can also prepare them to give a particular statement as well. If they can make witnesses disappear like that pundit, Tiwari the store manager and now that photographer, they can also produce new witnesses. Such stunts are a part of daily police procedure. It’s quite common to produce fake, motivated witnesses in the court. They can even produce an eye-witness anytime if need be, who would testify he saw you committing the murder.’
‘Won’t he be asked why he did not give a statement immediately after the incident?’
‘His lawyer can easily ward off that question by saying he was terrified of the consequences of testifying against a killer.’
‘Then why did he come to testify later?’
‘His conscience shook him, shamed him, and forced him. At last, he reached the police station to tell the truth as a responsible citizen, without worrying about the consequences.’
‘My God! Such blatant lies!’
‘Such things happen every day. If such fake cases succeed in getting a conviction, then the purpose is served, and even if they are rejected, the police remain safe because the witness is blamed for misguiding the police. And it is one of the loopholes of our legal system that rarely anybody who gives a false statement, which is called perjury in legal vocabulary, has been sentenced by a court of law for committing this crime.’
‘Strange!’
‘There is nothing strange about it. Anybody can make a mistake in identifying a person. The witness can say that he first thought he had correctly identified the killer but later realized his identification was faulty. Simple!’
‘If I am Sethji’s killer, why would I try to steal the car as well?’
‘To hide the real purpose of the murder, which was to grab his property. To misguide the police by giving an impression that it was a case of car-snatching gone wrong.’
‘The assets … how much would they be worth, sahib?’
‘My guess is somewhere around a hundred crores. This is a conservative estimate. His worth could easily be more than this.’
‘So his wife had him murdered to get hold of the property?’
‘Well, they can make that claim if the wife doesn’t stay put. I told you that before.’
‘Can the wife really get hold of the property this way?’
‘They can say, she might have thought she could, or,’ Navlani looked meaningfully at Jeet Singh while saying, ‘someone made her understand that the wife was the natural inheritor of the husband’s property.’
‘But is this true, that the wife is the natural inheritor of the husband’s property?’
‘Only if there is no will.’
‘And if there is a will, then?’
‘Then everything depends on what’s in the will. The maker of the will is the owner of his property and if he has it prepared in a sound mental condition and registers it in the sub-registrar’s court, then by the provisions of that will, anyone could inherit the property, or be deprived of it.’
‘Can such a will disqualify the legally wedded wife?’
‘Well, there is no uniform opinion on this. Many experts of the law believe that since the wife holds a special position in the life of a man, this can’t be done even by a will. Some others believe that the intention of the maker of the will is supreme and he can do so if he wishes. He can even donate the whole property to a charitable institution.’
‘Does it make a difference if the wife, children or dependents object in such a situation?’
‘Most of the time, it definitely doesn’t make a difference. But there is one possibility where it can matter.’
‘And what is that?’
‘Things will change if the family members or the dependents can prove that the person who made the will was not in a sound mental condition while doing so, that he was under the influence of somebody else or that he had lost his capability for better judgment to make correct choices while making the will.’
‘Oh!’
‘But these things are not applicable in this case as of now, since it is still not clear whether Sethji had made a will or not.’
‘Sahib, we were talking about the possibility of them alleging that I was a participant in the murder conspiracy, that I was the carjacker!’
‘Yes.’
‘But I don’t have
the car!’
‘The real carjacker, too, wouldn’t have had the car. The cars jacked this way are transported overnight to Nepal. A murder is committed, a car is jacked for the cover-up, and the car is handed over to the professionals for money. Easy!’
‘But I don’t have the money.’
‘You didn’t have those forty-three lakh rupees, too, that were the proceeds of robberies, that Changulani sahib held for you.’
Jeet Singh kept quiet.
‘And could you have forgotten that idea I gave you about that private vault in Johri Bazar? If that place was fit for concealing the money that Changulani sahib was holding for you, they why was it not fit for concealing the proceeds from carjacking?’
‘Those people won’t be aware of these things.’
‘You never know. Maybe they knew already or they came to know later!’
‘I never went to that private vault.’
‘But you could go, couldn’t you?’
‘I never felt the need.’
‘That’s a separate issue. My answer is still the same—you could go.’
‘Sahib, you are scaring me.’
Navlani laughed.
‘I am telling you the truth, the fact of the matter.’
‘But I came here to talk about something else.’
‘What else? For some solution to Sushmita’s problems?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes. But now I realize there is no solution for the problems of the tormented.’
Navlani did not say anything. He lit a cigarette without offering Jeet Singh one, and took some prolonged drags, thinking to himself.
‘Sahib,’ Jeet Singh said with unease, ‘please do something.’
‘I do something? What can I do?’
‘Sahib, you are such a big private detective, you can do something, find some solution …’
‘Easier said than done, Jeet Singh.’
‘Sahib, it is also easier to do if one makes up their mind.’
‘Is it so?’
‘Yes.’
Navlani took another long drag.
‘Sahib,’ Jeet Singh said, ‘you have always helped me, won’t you do it this time?’
Navlani brooded upon it.
‘Sahib, I respect you a lot, I have big expectations from you. I have said it before and I am saying it again, in this whole city you are the second person after Changulani sahib who had shown me any sympathy. And now, when Changulani sahib is no more, you are the only one. Sahib, please do something. I beg of you.’
‘What shall I do?’
‘Sahib, you’re asking me?’
‘Arre, let’s just say that the pd is thinking out loud. Let’s see whether the solutions that come to your mind match my line of thought or not!’
‘Sahib, you can find out the witnesses who have been made to disappear. Maybe then they won’t be able to keep their act together. If a single witness agrees to tell the truth, then this whole case will collapse in a moment.’
‘Fine, but that’s all just wishful thinking. You don’t understand how difficult this task is. We only know that the pundit went to his hometown in Kashmir, but nobody knows where his hometown is.’
‘Sahib, he is said to have been settled here for several years. Someone must know where his hometown is.’
‘Hmm.’
‘Then, we know for sure that the store manager Tiwari went to Ballia. He had been an employee of Sethji’s for so long, I am certain there must be a record of both his local and permanent addresses.’
‘Right.’
‘And that photographer might still be in Mumbai.’
‘I will get somebody to enquire about him.’
‘Somebody? Not you?’
‘I can’t do everything on my own, I can’t go everywhere. In cases like this, I have to call people from outside to do the legwork.’
‘Outside where?’
‘There are many places. In such cases, my tie-up is with the Cobra Investigation and Security Services. You have yourself interacted with this agency and with its partner Adinath Ghanekar.’
‘Yes, Sahib, he is a nice person.’
‘He is an alert man, an efficient administrator.’
‘Sahib, there is one more witness, Mira Kishnani, who hasn’t even disappeared. She is favouring Changulani sahib’s children, so she won’t testify in Sushmita’s favour, she won’t confess that the marriage happened, but there must be some way to make her tell the truth?’
‘We will explore that possibility, too.’
‘Sahib, I am an uneducated, dumb fellow, but something else also comes to my mind.’
‘About what?’
‘About the conspiracy that is going on.’
‘And what is that?’
‘Sahib, the murder story that they are spreading to muffle Sushmita’s voice can also apply to them.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Those people, too, could have engaged a hired assassin for the murder of Sethji!’
‘What?’
‘Those people—especially those English ones—could also have arranged a supari! After all it is a matter of a hundred crore rupees!’
‘But how can his own sons plan his assassination?’
‘This is Kalyug, sahib, anything is possible.’
‘Arre, they are the heirs of their father. If not now then later, that money is theirs …’
‘It’s not theirs now. And who knows about later! Sethji was a healthy man, he could have lived to be a hundred.’
‘You are suggesting a very dangerous angle, Jeet Singh.’
‘Sahib, it came to my mind so I shared it with you. Who knows if one of the sons, or the son-in-law, had some money problems, for which they needed an immediate solution! How could such a person wait for Sethji to die a natural death, which God knows would have come when!’
‘So, the supari? His forced departure from this mortal world?’
‘Why not?’
‘The sons in England, the son-in-law in Kolkata, and the supari killer in Mumbai?’
Jeet Singh hesitated.
‘The murder the carving knife from Sethji’s own cutlery! Which means the supari killer could not afford to have his own weapon. He relied on borrowed weapons, when the supari for such murders goes in lakhs!’
‘But they had to arrange it, too, for the implication of Sushmita!’
‘But how did that knife reach the contract killer? Who handed it over to him? If someone was instructed on phone from Kolkata or England to do that, then who is that person? Who removed the murder weapon from the flat—how he did that is a separate issue—and handed it over to the supari killer?’
‘Sahib, you are harassing me.’
Navlani laughed.
‘Sahib, you better continue with the will.’
‘ok.’
‘Sahib, you said so many things about the will, about the will of the testator, who knows Sethji made another will and disinherited some relatives.’
‘How can we know about it?’
‘Wills are generally made by lawyers?’
‘Generally, yes.’
‘Sahib, when a thing gets out of one hand, it can go land in any hand.’
‘I must say this is a very long shot, but you have a point there.’
‘So what do you say, Sahib?’
‘I will try to find out who was the lawyer whom Sethji engaged for routine things like drafting the will or the likes. I will try to get some information from him.’
‘Sahib, please also try to find out if there was a previous will or not.’
‘Why so?’
‘Then we will know if it was still an applicable will or was superseded by a new one.’
‘We can’t ascertain this from the previous will. This can only be established by a new will because in the initial part of a new will, the person making it certifies that “with this document, he is declaring the previous will null and void”.’
‘Sahib, you said new wills are registered
at the sub-registrar’s office. Now, isn’t it possible that there is a system of cancelling old wills if such a new will reaches the office?’
‘I have no knowledge of that. I will try to find out about that. But I know that the sub-registrar office keeps a record of the registered wills and if there is an old will, I will try to get a copy of that.’
‘I am sure there must be an old will, sahib.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I also know that it was made about ten years ago.’
‘That too, but how?’
Jeet Singh told him.
‘Surprising!’ Navlani said as if impressed. ‘You approached Lakhani! You even managed a meeting with him! You yourself are no less a detective, Jeet Singh.’
‘I am nothing, sahib.’
‘What can we gain even if we get the copy of the previous will?’
‘I have a gut feeling that the reason for throwing Sushmita out by calling her a live-in partner must lie in that will.’
‘You are making a sensible and smart argument, Jeet Singh.’
‘Sahib, this is the need of the hour, need makes you learn many things.’
‘You are absolutely right there.’
‘Sethji’s sons are settled in England. It won’t be possible to get them and their backgrounds checked from here!’
‘Everything is possible. It needs money, a big job like this needs big money, but everything is possible. I am a member of the international association of private detectives. I can avail the services of a private detective like me in any corner of the world.’
‘But this would need a lot of money!’
‘This is how it is, Jeet Singh. I have never charged any fee from you, not even when you insisted, but this time it won’t be possible.’
‘I understand, sahib.’
‘All of it would be very expensive, and this time I can’t afford not to charge the fees.’
Jeet Singh sighed.
‘What happened?’ Navlani raised his eyebrows. ‘Have I said anything wrong?’
‘No, sahib, whatever you said is absolutely right.’
‘Then?’
‘What shall I say?’
‘Is there anything special?’
‘The only special thing is my bad luck, sahib.’
‘I still don’t get you.’
‘Sahib, earlier I used to insist I will pay the fee but you never agreed. Now, when you ought to charge the fee, I am not in a position to pay.’
The Colaba Conspiracy Page 9