NOBODY LIGHTS A CANDLE
Anjali Deshpande
43
The DCP was watching him closely. His eyes, the eyes of the enquiry committee. His pupils narrowed a little. He saw in those eyes, disdain for himself, that jumped out and came to crawl on his back like a worm. Instantly his spine snapped to attention and shook off the worm. He is free. A free agent. He had done whatever he had done with full awareness of what he was doing, of his own free will. He will not show a bent back to these slaves of evidence. The truth that is subservient to only documentary evidence is not acceptable to him. From palm leaves to these papers, this system has used documents to invent lies and present them as truth. He has seen himself how evidence is created and how they are erased.
“Sir, the truth is that I tried to protect a hawaldar of mine. The truth is I did not hatch any conspiracy. I did not plan anything that happened that day. I only tried to help a subordinate. The truth is whatever Dalchand did he did not do of his own accord. Of his free will. He said yes, but all ‘yeses’ are not consent, you know that and I also know that. If you think I am guilty, punish me. I know nobody in the Bargadiya Gali saw any police jeep. You have witnesses to tell you that the police did not patrol the place that day. I know. Dalchand also may have told you that he did not go with me on the tour of inspection. I know many people saw Dalchand kill the man. You have witnesses. The truth is people had seen Sathiya also kill many but we got no witnesses. Not one. I have nothing more to say to this enquiry committee. Thank you.”
Adhirath stood up and got out of the room. Confidence had returned to his steps.
In the evening he called Nitesh. “Have to meet, you, yaar.”
“Arre, I am here in the neighbourhood. In Preet Vihar. Come over, we can meet here, let us go to Sagar Ratna,” Nitesh said. Sagar Ratna! He did not have that kind of money in his pocket. Actually, he had right now, but that was the money Nitesh had lent him. Even otherwise he would hardly allow him to pay the bill. It would be good if he left before Pushpa came home. He took a bus and got down at Lakshmi Nagar. He walked up to the next stop. There was no need to spend another fiver on the ticket. He had been spending too much in the last ten days or so.
He told Nitesh that he had no expectations of justice from the enquiry committee.
“Meaning? You didn’t deny?”
“I told them the truth. Dalchand is paying the price, I can also do it.”
Nitesh said, “But they will…”
“Yes, what?”
“Forget it.”
“No tell me. You truly have a very bad habit. You should either not begin to say something or should say it. That day too you said Bapu had said something about Pushpa. But you have not told me till now. Today, I ask you in the name of our friendship, what was it? Today I will only get up when you have told me both the things.”
“I was about to say that punishing you would seem like justice to them. What is justice for us is not justice for them.”
“I created evidence. I made false entries. Those are facts. I deserve to be penalized. If I had consulted a lawyer before I did all that nobody would have been able to touch a hair on my head. Like that loathsome fellow is doing, what’s his name, that Udairaj. “
“What is he doing?” asked Nitesh.
“He has consulted a lawyer and prepared his defence. DO you know, he is a murderer. He and Parduman, they both got together to kill that woman.”
“How can that be possible? Where is the proof?” Nitesh was shaken.
“That button, you know, when Udairaj was strangulating her, it fell there. The threads she wore around her wrist were caught in it.”
“You say anything that enters your head,” said Nitesh. “Let us assume it fell there but how can you prove it fell there on that very day? She could have worn those threads earlier. It could be the threads of one of his kurtas.”
Adhirath knew his statement had no weight. Who knows it could have been the button she had stolen earlier. Perhaps she wore it around her neck and in the struggle it fell off.
“You mean it did not fall off in the room when she was raped and she was struggling so hard, but it fell off outside?”
“The rape happened later. First she slept with Parduman. She may have taken it off, and she wore it again when she went out…”
“She remembered to wear it even in those conditions?” Nitesh sounded incredulous.
“Why not? She always kept it on her. It was after all her what she had earned in her life…”
“Earned? You have lost it Adhir. She had stolen it.”
“She took it. it was remuneration for the extreme pleasure she gave that man. He should have given her the diamond himself.”
“Granted. But see how a whore’s earnings mingle in the dust,” said Nitesh .”Why are you feeling so sympathetic to her?”
“Because we are all whores!” said Adhirath his teeth clenched. “We take things from the maalkhana, make false entries in registers. We are unscrupulous. Do we sell our consciences every day or not?”
Nitesh was stupefied. After a while he said, “Yaar, I know you are under much strain. Come on spit out your anger. How does it matter to me? If Udairaj is a murderer he is. I only need proof that is all.”
“You find the proof. It is your job. I found them. But you will not accept the statement he made to me. Come, make me a witness. He says he asked Parduman to get rid of the woman. He paid him four lacs. She was going to give birth to his child. Do you think in four lacs she would have given up her claims? She would have asked for a share in his property. You searched the farmhouse. , did you know Parduman was her even at that time? That is where he had been hiding. Why did you not apprehend him? You could not find him. Did you find the murder weapon? You did not. These people are very shrewd. Very very clever.”
“Listen, don’t get angry man, such cases will happen every day. And yes, I think you told me that his wife had said that the button was lost before Holi… the murder did not take place before Holi. But we have caught hold of the Parduman. We have found three witnesses. They had seen him that night. Parking his car under some trees and hotfooting it to the farm.”
“When did all this happen?”
“Today, just a couple of hours ago. Actually yesterday morning. A man called. He was saying he had some information and was very scared, he too could be killed. So I went to that Jhandapur village. The three boys are from that village. Lumpens. That four lacs you are talking about, we did not find them on Parduman. We conducted a raid on his house. He was absconding. We spread a net then and got him. It is true that this crorepati was carrying on with that woman. But why would he get her killed? They can buy any number of such women. Whatever, he lent me a lot of help in getting hold Parduman. We got his phone traced, it was traced to the village and the farm but we could not find him there. He must have run away from there. Then Udairaj helped us trace him. He is the one who called him and said that he had arranged some place for him to run away to.”
“You did a good job, boss,” said Adhirath.
“Udairaj asked him to come to the bus station, the interstate bus stop near Kashmiri gate. He himself went there in a taxi.”
“Why, what did he say, ‘it does not matter that you are a murderer, I like you so much I am going to help you’?” Adhirath sniggered.
“Yaar you are misreading the whole thing. It is not true that I found nothing in the farmhouse. I found that girl’s clothes. Some clothes of this Parduman also. It was clear they were used to staying there. Both of them. Come, let us go. It is getting late,” Nitesh motioned to the waiter to get them their bill.
The manager came to their table. “Sir, why do you have to pay for such a little snack? I am so grateful you gave us a chance to serve you.”
“When we take a favour, it will be a big one. We don’t take small bribes,” said Nitesh and went to the counter to pay.
“The public, they only want a murderer. Whoever it is. Does the public come to check what the evidence is? Public does not even know what the meaning of the word is. It is true, isn’t it that Parduman killed her? We have not arrested any wrong person. Made no false charges. That you will have to accept.”
He had to accept that much. The full moon of Holi had shrunk to a crescent. The market glittered with lamps and neon signs. A flood of cars was on the roads. Everything seemed unchanged. Nitesh cranked open the jeep door and said, “Let us meet in day or two.”
“Wait,” said Adhir. “You had to tell me that other thing also. What my father said about Pushpa.”
“I have forgotten,” said Nitesh. He had climbed in and was about to shut the door. Adhirath opened the back door and got in. With the closing of the door he shut out some of the clamour from outside but the hum of noise filtered in through metal and glass door. No escape, his mind said as he tried to concentrate on compelling Nitesh to tell him what he had once begun to tell. Nitesh motioned to the hawaldar on the driving seat and he got out.
Turning towards Adhirath he said, “you should not insist.” Adhirath kept staring at him. Unsettled Nitesh said, “you know what a good trick I played. Got Udairaj to call Parduman that the police is suspecting both of them. He said he was going to stay with his brother for some time and there he would think of some way to deal with this. Nobody will suspect them of having absconded because one can go to brother’s place, especially at festival times. They could even run away to Nepal from there. He asked Parduman to reach the bus station. Said he would bring the car. Then Parduman could drive him up to his brother’s house. That Parduman had left the farm and as hiding at some other friend’s house. We came in two jeeps, a full team. Udairaj went in a taxi. Parduman came to the bus station and we grabbed him there, along with his clothes. But those lacs of rupees wee not on him. A man who is about to abscond would carry all that dosh with him, wouldn’t he? Wasn’t that a good trick? I sent him with my ASI to the thana and came here with Udairaj. That is when you called.”
“Now tell me what he said about Pushpa.”
“If you insist. Uncle said to me the women of her caste can’t be trusted. They meet a lot of people. Only he did not say ‘meet’ he said something obscene. He said they are used to many people, they are not loyal to one person. Who knows whether Pushpa was also born of her father or not.”
Adhirath got out of the car.
email: anjalides@gmail.com
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