‘Not necessarily. The investigation is also done sometimes to ascertain whether the case is worth registering an fir or not.’
‘If that is so then give the name—or names, if there is more than one such person—of the person who wants to register the fir against her.’
‘They are the three children of the deceased, Alok Changulani, Ashok Changulani and Shobha Atlani, who are also his only successors.’
‘I want to call one of them for argument, and my preference is the complainant Alok Changulani.’
‘This court does not deem it necessary,’ snapped the judge. ‘Mr Shah’s demand does not come under the judicial purview of the present case of succession. This court advises Mr Shah to wait till the fir is registered, and then he may be heard in an appropriate court.’
‘I intend to do exactly that your honour, but I request that proceedings on the present case of succession must be postponed till that time.’
‘Your honour,’ Lakra thundered, ‘I object …’
‘If that is not done,’ Shah said in a matching voice, ‘then it would be depriving this widow of her rights.’
‘Her rights would come under consideration only after it is established that she is the widow, and was the wife.’
‘My dear friend, I can establish it right now, but I’m helpless. His honour is not ready to allow the proceedings take that trajectory.’
‘You,’ Lakra was flabbergasted, ‘can establish this right now?’
‘Yes, I can, provided his honour is ready to give me a hearing.’
‘How … how will you do that?’
‘I would have to teach you a couple of things about jurisprudence first, and I have no intention of doing that.’ Shah turned towards the judge, ‘But it would be a different matter if you want to hear it, your honour.’
‘No!’ the judge said decisively. ‘These things don’t fall under the purview of the present case.’
‘So there!’ Shah said in a triumphant manner.
‘It’s a bluff,’ mumbled Lakra.
‘Then call my bluff,’ Shah said in a challenging voice. ‘Go ahead and call my bluff. I dare you.’
‘I will take the challenge in the sessions court.’
‘I will meet you there.’
‘I advise both counsels,’ the judge said, ‘to refrain from personalities. All comments of the counsels must be addressed to the court and not to each other.’
The lawyers expressed their apologies.
‘Mr Shah, do you still have to say something?’
‘Your honour,’ said Shah this time in a serious tone, ‘I have to say a whole lot.’
‘Please proceed.’
‘Your honour, now I want to come to the subject which falls under the purview of this case. This,’ he handed a paper to the court clerk who later handed it over to the judge, ‘is the photocopy of the registered will of deceased Pursumal Changulani, whose succession is the subject of this case. This will was registered ten years back in the court of the sub-registrar and since no other registered will of the deceased has come to light since then, this is the last valid will and testament of the late Mr Changulani. Your honour, if you go through it, you will find that it is clearly mentioned in it that in case of the death of the testator, his movable and immovable assets must be divided into four equal parts; four equal parts for the four successors—two sons, the daughter and the wife. Now your honour can himself decide that in light of this valid, legal and impeccable will, how can these three petitioners be declared the only successors of the inheritance? How can a succession certificate be issued in their favour?’
‘Your honour,’ Lakra said, ‘this will is ten years old and the name of the wife of the testator mentioned in it is Sujata Changulani, who died six years back.’
‘Your honour, I appreciate the superior knowledge of my learned friend in this matter. I accept that he is better informed about the wife than me.’
‘Thank you,’ Lakra said dryly.
‘But I have three objections to his statement. First, my learned friend certainly has supernatural powers, by virtue of which he knows which wife has been mentioned in the will. Second, he thinks that if the wife dies, then any will of the husband in existence at that time is automatically rendered worthless. Third, his own recent statement verifies that he was aware of the fact that a will, a perfectly valid will, was in effect.’
‘Please elaborate,’ the judge said.
‘Your honour, when he knows about the content and provisions of the will without even looking at the photocopy, then it goes without saying that he is aware of the existence of the registered will of the deceased. And if that is the case, then what is the point of submitting in the court that the deceased died intestate? That he died without leaving any will behind? And so the children may be considered his heirs and a succession certificate be issued in their favour!’
The judge gave Lakra a stern look.
‘Ac-actually,’ Lakra stammered, ‘we came to know of the will only after filing the succession petition.’
‘Then,’ Shah said, ‘why was the petition not withdrawn?’
‘We are ready to do that now. In fact, we will now file a fresh petition that in light of the registered will, the photocopy of which has been submitted before the court, the succession certificate be issued in the name of remaining three beneficiaries, who are the three children, as the fourth beneficiary is no more.’
‘I strongly object, your honour. This is assuming facts not in evidence. The fourth beneficiary is not dead; it is the first wife who is dead.’
‘What’s the difference?’
‘There’s a whole lot of difference. Your honour, this must be kept in mind that in the will—this being the photocopy of the same—the wife has not been mentioned by name. Hence, it could be safely assumed that any woman who was the wife of the deceased at the time of his death would be considered the fourth beneficiary, which is my client Sushmita Changulani in this case.’
‘Your honour,’ Lakra objected, ‘there is no evidence to substantiate Mr Shah’s claim, that the deceased in his lifetime married this woman.’
‘I will present the evidence,’ Shah said confidently, ‘if his honour is ready to let me do that.’
‘No,’ the judge said, ‘that’s out of the question.’
‘So there!’
Lakra remained silent.
‘Your honour,’ Shah once again turned to the judge, ‘this is the lone clause, lone legal loophole in this will that goes in favour of my client, that the testator did not mention his wife by name. Maybe the deceased wanted to mention his previous wife in this will, but he failed to do that. He mentioned her as a beneficiary by relation, not by name. But now this missive, this oversight can’t be made binding on my client. It’s obvious that while making the will, the testator never imagined that his first wife would die and he would marry again. But using this coincidence, this turn of events against my client would be gross injustice. In addition let somebody tell me why a woman would call some other man her husband?’
‘For his money,’ Lakra said.
‘But how can she lay a claim to it if she can’t prove she is the wife? Why will she take a step that will only defame her, humiliate her? Your honour, here I would like to end my statement with the submission that either your honour may yourself listen to my arguments or grant me enough time to be heard before an appropriate court.’
‘This court rules,’ the judge said, ‘that if the applicants continue with their present petition, the hearing on it is postponed two weeks from this date. In the meantime, anything that goes in favour or against any of the parties in the sessions court must be reported in this court before the date of next hearing. And if the applicants file a new petition, then the status report of their case in the other court—if such case is in progress in the other court—must be attached with the petition. The court is adjourned till the next hearing.’
The judge had not even turned his back after getting
up from his seat when the Changulani family started giving murderous looks to Sushmita, and Gunjan Shah as well.
All of them came out of the court.
‘Congratulations, Mr Shah!’ Navlani said happily.
‘What for?’
‘You argued brilliantly.’
‘I did nothing of the kind. There was no scope of arguing brilliantly there. The judge was not ready to see beyond his nose.’
‘Then for creating a hindrance in the processing of the succession. Now the matter is successfully postponed for at least two weeks. For at least two weeks their possession over the property of the deceased is deterred.’
Shah laughed.
‘You were very confident when it came to presenting the evidence of the marriage. Could you have done that?’
‘No, not here.’
‘Then that lawyer Lakra was correct when he said that your claim regarding the evidence was a bluff?’
‘But I will manage to do something like a magic trick in the sessions court.’
‘You will?’
‘Yes, Lakra correctly identified my bluff, but he could not dare to call it.’
‘What if he called it?’
‘Then the judge would have refused to listen. That is why I played that bluff, and claimed to present the evidence as my grandstand, for I knew the judge wouldn’t agree to let me proceed on that line.’
‘Very clever! Shah sahib, you cashed in beautifully on the fact that the wife was not mentioned by name in the will!’
‘It was a coincidence that it happened that way. The judge was evidently getting bored of the proceedings, which is why he was not attentive towards this, and Lakra’s emphasis was on being loud and arrogant, otherwise that argument was very weak. Anyway, he would find out that weakness sooner or later and then he sure will raise hell.’
‘What’s that weakness?’
‘This is as clear as the day that the deceased made his will when his wife was alive, then it was she who was mentioned as beneficiary to one-fourth of his estate. It was a mere coincidence—onwards too, its worth was no more than a technicality—that neither the testator’s not his lawyer’s attention was drawn towards this omission that in the will none of the beneficiaries was mentioned by name. The weakness, Mr pd, is this that no will is cancelled if one of the beneficiaries dies before the testator. In the present case, the will cannot be declared void because the wife died. The only change that will occur will be that the share of the deceased will be equally distributed between the remaining beneficiaries. In the present case now daughter and sons will get one-third and not one-fourth of the estate.’
‘But this is unjust for the second wife!’ Jeet Singh said in a low voice.
‘Even if it is, the beneficiaries did not do the injustice, the testator did it. If the late Pursumal Changulani wanted to be just and judicious to his new wife, wanted to act as a responsible provider to her, he should have made the new will immediately after the marriage.’
‘Otherwise,’ Navlani said, ‘does the married wife have no rights in such cases?’
‘She does, but one has to fight for that and the procedure for that always proves very lengthy. Such civil cases can drag for years. Since the successors in most of the cases are impatient to get their share of inheritance, they work out some respectable financial compromise with the victimized wife.’
‘Is it possible in the present case?’
‘Yes, it is, because the sons would be in a hurry to go back to England. But before that, they will definitely use their strategy of framing madam in the murder case, which they have concocted so meticulously in connivance with the police. I don’t think they will give a thought to the compromise till their grand set-up fails to produce a result.’
‘Will it fail?’
‘We’ll see. But everything depends on whether we can find something worthwhile to counter their claim that madam was not the wife of the departed soul and his live-in partner. If we succeed in establishing that the marriage did take place, then the murder case frame-up will get weakened automatically.’
‘Oh!’
‘The law of succession says that a person, who is in full control of his mental capabilities, can via a will declare anybody to be the inheritor of his self-earned property. He can donate it, hand it over to a trust, leave it for any person or organization, can do whatever he wants to do with it. When somebody does it, his greedy relatives—close or distant—try to establish that the testator was not in his senses, his mental faculties were not in his control when he wrote the will, that his state of mind was taken advantage of, he was brainwashed to write things which he would have never written had he been in full control of his senses and the prevalent circumstances.’
‘Does it work?’
‘Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, but nobody can resist the temptation to give it a try. Anyway I cited a general trend. It is not applicable to madam’s case. What applies in our case is the fact that madam was living happily with her husband, who was so generous and kind to her that he was paying for the education of her deceased sister’s three children, who were being schooled in a decent and costly educational institution in Lonawala. In this situation, she must have been praying for his long life, and not planning his assassination. I mean to say that the murder charges won’t hold if we succeed in proving she was the wife, not live-in partner. The murder charges won’t hold even if we can’t establish that, but then we have to make an extra effort. And a lot of money would be spent on it which I don’t know whether she can afford or not. In the second case, her arrest is imminent.’ The lawyer paused and looked at Jeet Singh, ‘His too.’
Jeet Singh didn’t react but Sushmita’s face turned white.
‘Don’t you worry, my dear!’ Shah said, putting an arm around her and patting her cheek. ‘Am I with you, or not?’
The drama of comforting her would have lasted longer had Jeet Singh and Navlani not been there, but he soon let her go.
‘What will you do now?’ Navlani asked.
‘That’s a good question. Now the first thing I will do is to get her complaint registered with the police in light of the excesses committed against her.’
‘But how will that happen? The sho of the police station concerned is in the pocket of the Changulanis.’
‘I am aware of that, which is why I will have to approach the dcp of that district. We will get the FIR registered if that sho is not a bootlicker of the dcp. Otherwise I may have to approach the Commissioner.’
‘Would you be able to do that?’
‘My dear, I am Gunjan Shah.’
He did not add anything to that, as if the rest was self-explanatory, capable of establishing everything.
‘You’re absolutely right, sir,’ an impressed Navlani said. ‘Madam, you should be pleased that you are in good hands.’
‘In good hands!’ Shah said in a delighted tone, ‘You said it, my dear, but that is a different story.’
Sushmita gave an obliged smile.
‘Navlani,’ Shah said in a serious tone, ‘pds generally become experts of the law as well, so you must be aware that the law does not permit anyone to benefit from his own crime. This is the foundation of my future legal strategy.’
‘You mean to say,’ Navlani said, ‘that one of the successors could be the murderer?’
‘Exactly! And it is not very unlikely also in light of the dialogue noted down by madam between her deceased husband and the mysterious visitor. Navlani, your help is very crucial here. Try to find something that could substantiate our point. If we can establish that one of the three successors is the killer, then I can easily implicate the remaining two with him.’
‘Which means madam would be the sole beneficiary of her dear departed husband!’
‘That’s a good dream, and it will cause a substantial rise in your professional fees if it turns into reality.’
‘As if it won’t cause a substantial increase in yours!’
Shah laug
hed, turned to look at Sushmita and said, ‘Cheer up, my beautiful heiress.’
‘Sir, I cannot. You are forgetting that I am a widow, and my husband died just eight days ago.’
‘Oh! You’ve put me to shame. See! You’re in mourning and I clear forgot that.’
‘Never mind.’
‘But I do mind, it was a blunder on my part. I beg your forgiveness, my dear lady.’
‘Oh sir, you are Gunjan Shah. Shah that is royalty and royalty never asks for forgiveness.’
It was the frivolity, the amusement, the banter of gentry, and the likes of Jeet Singh had no place there. It seemed as if nobody remembered he was there. At that time they were in a world of their own—Sushmita was a new entrant to that world—which was their domain and a nonentity like Jeet Singh had no place in it.
Sushmita, who had pointed out a minute ago that she was a widow, was laughing now.
Why was he there? He had no business being there. He had no business there earlier too. He had completed his transaction in this business at Khar already. What was he doing among those people?
Jeet Singh!
Jeeta!
The ill-fated nobody! With a big chip on his shoulder! The bad penny! Why was he known as Jeeta? What was in his mother’s mind when she named him Jeeta, the victor? Did she think that her son would conquer the world when he grew up? He was not Jeeta the victor; he was Jeeta the alive.
What was he doing there? Now there was no need of him there.
He left the place silently, and who knows after how long did somebody realize that he was not there.
The dcp of the district in which Colaba police station lay had his office in the same premises as the police station.
The dcp’s name was Ankush Jamwal, and he knew Gunjan Shah beforehand. He got up and warmly shook hands with Shah when they entered his office.
‘This is Sushmita Changulani,’ Shah said, introducing Sushmita, ‘my client.’
Sushmita folded her hands respectfully, the dcp smiled to acknowledge the greeting.
‘Please have a seat.’
Both of them thanked him, and sat on two adjoining visitors’ chairs.
‘Now tell me,’ the dcp said, ‘what can I do for you?’
The Colaba Conspiracy Page 27