Authors: Manjiri Prabhu
“Jatin, could you please call up Inspector Shinde? I need to talk to him.”
“Right, Boss,” her assistant responded promptly. Sometimes it was better to do these menial tasks than follow his Boss’s thought process.
Sonia stood outside the Sahay house for a moment, then walked across the street, to the building opposite. Jatin followed her silently. She hadn’t uttered a word for the last half hour. At the foot of the building, she paused and stood gazing up at the window of the first-floor apartment. It was exactly opposite the Sahay bedroom window. So this was the place from which he had spied on her. She moved to the list of apartment owners printed on a black board. Her eyes travelled along the embossed names. Then she turned and Jatin saw her triumphant look.
“What is it, Boss?”
“Come and take a look.”
Jatin frowned. “I…don’t understand….”
“You will, soon.” Sonia smiled. “Come on. We promised to meet Kartik at five. Let’s go!”
Bewildered, her assistant fell in step with her firm and determined stride.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Sonia asked, gazing up at the building.
Kartik nodded. Sonia, Jatin, and Kartik stood outside a gate in the Deccan area. The traffic crowded around the signal, honking impatiently at the two-wheelers, and the crisscrossing pedestrians. Gift and greeting-card shops stood at each corner of the wide intersection.
“I would park my bike on the opposite side and she would stop her auto right by the gate. Every alternate day,” Kartik explained.
“And you have no idea whom she went inside to meet? Or what she did?” Sonia reconfirmed.
“No. I assumed it was some friend, or that she was taking tuitions—you know, teaching students for some extra cash? I didn’t feel the need to pry. I know it may sound odd, specially since I’d been following her around, but I did that only to ensure her safety! Not that it helped a bit!”
“Don’t be too sure of that,” Sonia said in an enigmatic tone. “I believe your persistence may have helped—a lot!”
Jatin quickly glanced at his Boss, but her face was non-committal.
“You two wait here. I’m going in to find out what I can. But I don’t want a crowd,” she said, and the others nodded.
Sonia opened the small gate which led up a path to a curved staircase. On the landing, she came across a shaded glass door with a nameplate. With a mouth gone suddenly dry, she read the name on the door.
“What are you looking for?” Renuka asked again.
With Inspector Shinde’s permission, Sonia had been foraging through cupboards and divans for the last half hour, her fingers determinedly probing hidden corners. Jatin studied his Boss for an explanation, but she gave none. He sympathised with Renuka’s exasperation. He had experienced similar feelings on many cases. But he had discovered that his Boss usually had a very good reason for her secrecy. And he had learnt to respect her investigative methods. Ultimately she was right.
Mrs. Sahay followed them from room to room, glowering, her mouth spewing angry, ugly retorts and comments. “Messing around the house, disrupting my home! All because of that daughter-in-law of mine who had the misfortune of dying in the house! And they blame me and my family! Forgetting that we may be grieved, too, even though she was not the best of daughter-in-laws and had as many flaws as you could count! And the cheek of this…this
stranger
upsetting my sacred home! God knows which caste she is. She’s even touching my God!
Hey Bhagwan—
Oh God!—help us. Protect us from these invaders….”
Sonia ignored the woman. She continued her search in a cool, detached, single-minded manner. Her mind remained focused. She knew exactly what she was looking for. If she could only ferret it out…Where could it be?
Inspector Shinde arrived at that moment. His stance was severe as he announced, “I have an arrest warrant for Mrs. Sahay for murdering her daughter-in-law, Vidya!”
Renuka gave a spontaneous triumphant chuckle.
“No!” Mr. Sahay screamed. “These are all lies! You can’t catch the real murderer, so you’re arresting my wife!”
“The residue in the glass of milk and the contents in the sleeping pill bottle found in your wife’s cupboard are the same. We don’t need further proof.”
“You can’t do this to us. We need to see a lawyer,” Parmeet spoke up.
“Go ahead and contact your lawyer. And say all you want to in the court,” Inspector Shinde retorted.
Sonia cleared her throat. “Inspector Shinde, can I speak to you for a minute?”
Renuka turned to her in surprise and even the policeman looked curious, but he nodded. He gestured to his constables to keep an eye on the Sahays, then followed Sonia and Jatin into the next room. Renuka stepped into the room, after them.
“Yes, what is it, Ms. Samarth? You will have to hurry.” Shinde spoke a trifle impatiently.
“Of course,” Sonia agreed readily. “Let me come straight to the point. I’m afraid you cannot arrest Mrs. Sahay for murder.”
“What!” Renuka exclaimed.
“We have proof, Madam,” the policeman reiterated coldly.
“Let me explain. From the beginning I’ve had this feeling about the three M’s of investigation. The Motive was obvious enough. Harrassment for dowry. But the manner in which Vidya was killed and with the Material used—in this case, the sleeping pills—puzzled me. Why kill your own daughter-in-law in the house with your own pills and then leave the murder weapon around to be found? Also, I was curious about what Vidya’s horoscope had to say about all this. It told me that Vidya had not been murdered, but that she had
committed suicide
!”
A gasp escaped the other three.
“Suicide!” Renuka cried in disbelief. “But why?”
“With Mrs. Sahay’s sleeping pills?” Jatin demanded.
“But she didn’t leave a suicide note,” Shinde added.
“Vidya didn’t leave a suicide note because she did not
want
anyone to discover that this was a suicide! As we all know, Vidya was terribly harassed by her in-laws for dowry for a car. She knew that there was no way out of this mess. Especially since Parmeet, her husband, was incapable of keeping his parents from making such demands. But she wasn’t going to give in without a fight. She was fed up with life, but she also desperately wanted to teach her in-laws a lesson. She planned it well. She had a loud argument with her mother-in-law, loud enough for Kartik to hear, for she knew he was following her and would prove a perfect witness. She planned it on a night when her husband would be away, because she did not wish to drag him into it. Even in her last moments, when she wrote in her diary, there was no malice or resentment towards her husband. After the argument, she dissolved his mother’s sleeping pills into the glass of milk, and replaced the bottle in Mrs. Sahay’s cupboard. Then, at peace because she would finally have her revenge, she drank the milk. In the morning her husband found her dead.”
A heavy silence ensued, as each grappled with the narration.
At length, Inspector Shinde sighed. “But why go to so much trouble? Had she simply lodged a complaint with the police, the Sahays would have been booked in no time.”
“But for harassment. And not for long. They would’ve been back home within months and with an appetite for vengeance. No, Vidya had to do this right. For good,” Sonia pointed out.
“But to kill yourself…” Renuka murmured.
“You’d be surprised at the mental torture and low self-esteem of these girls who are harassed for dowry. Demands are difficult to be proved. And facing the same intensity of harassment day after day is an ordeal one can only imagine.”
“What about proof?” Shinde asked.
“When you checked the bottle for prints, you found Vidya’s fingerprints on it, didn’t you?” Sonia replied.
“Actually, we did, but since Vidya usually gave her mother-in-law the dose…Perhaps what you say may hold some truth.” The policeman shook his head in amazement.
“The Sahays will go scot-free,” Renuka pointed out gloomily.
“Not exactly,” Sonia added with a half smile. “I said Mrs. Sahay cannot be arrested for
murder,
but she can be charged for
provoking suicide
! Isn’t the fact of the death of a woman, within seven years of her married life, under suspicious conditions reason enough for a good lawyer to make a case? Besides, we cannot ignore the cause of the suicide. Harassment. Vidya was frustrated and fed up with the harassment and she killed herself to escape the constant dowry demands. Is that not reason enough for arresting Mrs. Sahay? Section 498-A? Section 498-A in the Indian Penal Code covers harassment—physical and mental torture, emotional torture through verbal abuse. Surely that could drive a woman to commit suicide. Under the law, if it is shown that soon before her death a woman was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband, or any relative of her husband, in connection with any demand for dowry, the persons are held responsible for this dowry death.”
Shinde looked at Sonia and smiled. “You’re quite amazing!”
Jatin glanced at his Boss in admiration. Didn’t he already know that?
But anger flashed in Renuka’s eyes. “But Mrs. Sahay will be held for
harassment,
not a dowry death, thanks to you, Sonia. Why did you do this! Why did you spoil her plan?”
Sonia reserved a dignified silence, allowing the girl to vent her feelings.
“God knows they deserved the punishment! Now, because of you, Parmeet is a free bird—”
“Vidya did not wish to involve Parmeet in this whole ugly business,” Sonia had to cut in. “Her diary is explicit proof of her devotion to her husband.”
“My friend was a fool! Parmeet is as much to blame as his parents.”
“Not in Vidya’s opinion.”
“And Mrs. Sahay will escape with a mere rap on the knuckles. Considering what they did to her, that’s what a few years in jail will amount to!”
Sonia pursed her lips. “I understand your feelings, Renuka. But nobody murdered Vidya. She was harassed and the harasser will be punished appropriately. But to deliberately plan a suicide and make it appear like your own murder and have someone else accused for it? You may be shocked at the negative implications it will provoke. It will totally tarnish Vidya’s image and even erase most of the sympathy people felt for her. Some may admire her courage, some may even applaud her daring. But I fear Vidya’s plan has complicated matters so much that you cannot ignore the possibility of even Mrs. Sahay going scot-free! What your friend did was unethical.”
“Unethical! How can you stand there and talk about principles when my friend is dead because of these fiends! Don’t talk to me about moral values and understanding!” Renuka hissed. “I wanted these scoundrels to be hanged for what they did to Vidya, and now thanks to you they will proudly strut around in society and find another money-sprouting scapegoat!” She glared at Sonia, then slammed out of the room.
Sonia stared unhappily at her receding back. Consternation was stamped on Jatin’s face, as Inspector Shinde glanced at the detective sympathetically.
Mohnish stood silently by the inner office door, observing Sonia with a frown. She was leaning against her chair, her eyes closed in deep contemplation. She was still, like a statue. And even Nidhi’s antics did not seem to disturb her.
Nidhi was chasing a crumpled piece of white paper round the room, which had spilled out of the upturned plastic dustbin. The dustbin rolled and immediately the cat’s attention was riveted to it. Taking aim, she pounced and slid off it with a crash!
Sonia straightened, opening her eyes.
“Hello! You startled me!” Sonia gasped when she saw Mohnish.
“That’s because you’re not in your element,” Mohnish responded, entering the office.
“When did you arrive?”
“A couple of minutes ago. I didn’t wish to disturb your meditation.”
“Meditation…I wish I was good enough in meditation to blank out all thought from my mind!”
“What’s the matter?” he asked, his tone quiet.
Sonia sighed. “If only I could word the confusion in my mind! Right now, it is a ball of jumbled emotions. Right pitched against wrong, affliction and suffering fighting to surface over justice. Is justice a mere definition on paper?”
Mohnish looked at her with compassion in his deep brown eyes. “You are upset over Renuka’s reaction. Jatin told me all about it. You did the right thing, Sonia. You cannot let emotions override the truth.”
“I know. But Renuka has a point, too. I wonder…if I should never have interfered. I feel as if, in some intrinsic way, I am failing Vidya—failing all those wretched women who are victims of dowry. Perhaps it would’ve been better—more in favour of the ultimate justice—if Vidya’s plot had remained a secret?”
“You wouldn’t have been at peace,” Mohnish stated calmly.
“I’m not at peace, even now. I feel as if someone has punched a hole in my confidence. When I think about Vidya’s past, I realise that none of these events needed to occur. Vidya’s in-laws needn’t have harassed her. Vidya needn’t have died. She tried to teach them a lesson, which now they will never learn. And instead, here I am, being coached by circumstances that justice works at several ends!”
“Sonia, the best thing to do is focus on
what
is right, not
who
is right or who should be right,” Mohnish said firmly.
Sonia stared at him a long moment, his words defusing the tension like a bomb. Sudden respect replaced the bewildered expression in her eyes. “You have struck the nail on the head. I think that’s exactly what I need to do. Focus.”
“Good.” Mohnish flashed her a pleased smile.
A key turned in the lock and he entered the dark room. For a time he stood motionless, then he walked to the next room. The room which overlooked her window. There was no light there, either. She had gone, gone forever. He didn’t need to follow her anymore. It was all over. He couldn’t understand if he felt relief or anger. He felt empty. Had it all been worth it? he wondered. He stared at the dark window across the street and for an instant thought he saw a movement there. Somebody was in her room! He strained his eyes. A woman? Not
her…
He quickly lifted the binoculars and trained them on the window across the street. And that very instant, the lights were switched on in the room. He whirled around and stared in shock. Inspector Shinde, Sonia, and Jatin stood in the doorway.