A MURDER AND A MYSTERY

CHAPTER 15: CASE CLOSED

Justice is a strange concept.In our land, where most of us have the fatalistic streak in us by birth, it is stranger. We as common citizens expect that laws should protect us and ensure that each one is assured of the fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizens of India.One would generally expect that whoever takes a life must be punished appropriately.

But we also believe that it is finally God who metes out justice and not human beings. Thus we believe that even if the laws of the land allow culprits to go unpunished, the culprits would face punishment at the hands of God; when and how one cannot tell.

Williams investigated the case thoroughly and was able to bring out the truth. He was able to reconstruct the crime, the people involved in the crime and their motives. Actually, motives for such a crime as Shipra's murder are trivial. Shipra, in a sense, brought her death upon herself. She was playing with fire, knowing fully well that she could be singed. As she began to be accepted in the political circles, her ambitions grew. She was making good money, and she was happy about it. At last, she could help her family with the money to buy them all a good, happy and luxurious life. Like all of us who love money for what happiness it can buy, she had forgotten that it buys only unhappiness.

On that fateful day, she had gone to the party office at Bandra; she had been summoned for some work there. One of the senior party workers told her that her assignment today was very important to the party. She had to keep someone very important to the party, very happy for a few days. This someone was a rich industrial baron who, if pleased, can donate large sums of money for the party.

Shipra accompanied the man to the guest house, where a party was arranged that evening. Apart from the industrialist, there were senior party officials and some gangsters in attendance. Shipra was not aware of their identities. The party got boisterous as the night set in and one of the gangsters took a fancy for Shipra. One thing led to the other and soon the gangster was forcing himself upon Shipra. Others tried to stop him but he was out of their control. The industrialist left in a huff, worried that he could be in trouble. The senior party officials too left the guest house, afraid that something bad may happen.

The gangster got enraged when Shipra refused to oblige him. It all ended with the gangster pulling out a knife on Shipra. When he saw Shipra badly wounded and bleeding, he fled the scene. The caretaker did not know how to handle the situation and he rang up the party to ask for instructions. He was advised to take the girl to some hospital. By then, Shipra was dead. The caretaker again informed the party bosses about the death. They asked him to dispose the body.

Manohar was at hand at that time and saw that the caretaker was scared. He quickly sized up the situation and told the caretaker that he could help in disposing the body. He had keys to a flat in the neighborhood where the body could be hidden. The owner of the flat lived alone and was a mad man. But he was always in the house, except for a few hours in the evening every day. The caretaker told Manohar that the job had to be done in the night, and immediately.

The two took the chance; they packed the body in a gunny bag and drove to the building in the dead of the night. Fortunately for them, security was so lax that they were able to take the body without getting noticed. Manohar meanwhile had asked for the keys from his brother. They opened the door of the flat and found it in absolute darkness. They found the loft, and dumped the body there; and left as silently as they had come.

The caretaker could not believe his luck. It was after all so simple, and easily done.

The party decided to pay a compensation of rupees two lacs to Shipra's family and provide a stable job for Gotya. The police never handed over the body to the family. As the body was badly decomposed, they had to dispose it off. Williams told Gotya to take it all in his stride and not to create any problems. There was no practical use to cry for justice where there would be none. Gotya never told his family about his visits to Bandra. The official version was that Shipra had died in a road accident; a hit and run case. Her body was badly crushed and it took the police time to identify it. Since it was late night, there was no witness to the accident.

Williams got a promotion after successfully solving the case. He heard rumors about how a deal involving a substantial amount of money was struck between two political parties to keep the facts of the case under wraps. It never was told to the public that a responsible political party hired women as escorts to please important people.

The gangster who actually committed the murder was found shot dead on the outskirts of the city. One really does not know how he was killed, but there are two prevalent theories. One is that the gangster was shot dead in a gang war, as it so often happens in the underworld. The second theory is that he was killed in an encounter with the police, which the police department refuses to accept. There are sources within the police department which say that there was considerable debate on how to book the gangster. A few senior police officials were of the view that the gangster should be booked for some other crime and brought to trial. This view was strongly rebutted by a clutch of very senior officials who were of the view that it would not serve justice; on the contrary, it would allow the gangster to make inconvenient revelations about the party involved.

The option of arresting the criminal, who had a long history of crimes, will only enable him to prolong justice and even evade the laws as it so often happens in the country. Why burden the courts with cases such as this when we are sure that he is a criminal, said the officials. They suggested a better way of meting out justice; just kill him and dump his body somewhere. The gangster thus paid for the murder of Shipra, and all other crimes he had been committing with impunity.

This also found acceptance within political circles. The Shipra case would never come up in public glare and the escort scandal would be buried under heaps of paperwork. The paperwork could help certain political ends to be met and some fruitful outcome could be facilitated.

Sebastian breathed easy after Williams told him that the case was solved and there would be no further inquiry against him. The incident had shaken up Sebastian who then decided that living alone and in misery was not the solution. Everyone has some tragedy or the other in their lives, but wallowing in the tragedy and spoiling you present is not what one should do. His uncle persuaded him to marry, and now he has a wife.

Late one night, Sebastian's departed wife and parents appeared in his dream. It was like what had happened once before. His wife was looking cheerful and so were his parents. His wife told him they were all happy for him and blessed his wife. She now wanted him to produce some children. She promised to return when the first child came.

Sebastian never told his living wife about this dream. He was happy that his ex-wife attained the salvation she wanted. Perhaps, some day, if and when a child was born, he would introduce his present wife to his ex.